Jason Bateman is the only reason to watch this film. He is given good moments and he brings them alive with conviction. Even the bad moments he makes enjoyable. The undoing of this romcom is everything else around him. Bateman's honest performance loses credibility when it's surrounded by such fakery.
Bateman plays Wally Mars, a neurotic man who can't seem to find the right girl. Something is always wrong. He's best friends with one of his exes, Kassie Larson (Jennifer Aniston, THE GOOD GIRL). She's getting to the point in her life that if she doesn't have a baby soon she'll never have one. She wants Wally to help her find a suitable sperm donor. He doesn't like the idea at all.
She finds the married Roland (Patrick Wilson, LITTLE CHILDREN), who needs the money. Her friend Debbie (Juliette Lewis, CAPE FEAR) throws her a pregnancy party where she has a date with a turkey baster. Wally shows up and gets rip roaring drunk. He stumbles into the bathroom where he finds Roland's sample. For some unknown reason, he starts messing with it and dumps it. To fix the problem, he makes a switch.
The core premise is so implausible that it sends ripples through the entire film. Wally doesn't remember what he did. Kassie moves away and comes back when her son Sebastian (Thomas Robinson, TV's THE PROTECTOR) is seven, but like so many awful movie kids sounds like he's a smart 15 year old. He's a little Wally clone, which only Wally seems to recognize. Every time the film deals with the actually plot the story comes to a screeching halt, because we are reminded of how stupid it is and how the screenplay is stretching out the inevitable moment when Wally has to tell Kassie what happened.
Outside of the introduction of Sebastian, the scenes between Wally and the kid are compelling. Bateman is so convincing as a set-in-his-ways man whose life blooms when he's bonding with his child. Robinson is adorable and does well when the material he is given isn't written like a sitcom trying to maximize precocious laughs. Sadly these characters are stuck in a romantic comedy where Wally loves Kassie who is now dating her baby's sperm donor. Such a 21st century romance.
Bateman and Aniston have little chemistry as a romantic duo. The script does not help them. They often bicker like siblings, which doesn't make us want them to kiss in the end. At times Kassie treats Wally so poorly we understand why a broke it off with her once before. You're never rooting for them. You're rooting for Kassie to run away with Roland so Wally can raise Sebastian.
I'm surprised this was based on a short story from THE VIRGIN SUICIDES author Jeffrey Eugenides. Because I haven't read the original I can't say what of this film came from it. Having been titled BASTER I gather I know at least one element. For me the film feels like a writing assignment where someone became enamored with the inane idea of someone switching sperm donations and told someone else to write the script and make it work. It didn't work.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
