Save for an exquisitely bittersweet coda, Jeffrey Eugenides’ 1996 short story “Baster” closes with the bathroom shenanigans that give The Switch its title, leaving the movie to take a full hour’s worth of creative license. But the two versions part ways well before the point where Eugenides’ story ends and the movie continues, and their different handling of that pivotal scene says everything about where the adaptation went terribly, inexplicably wrong.
First, a little background: Wally and Kassie (called Tomasina in the original) are former lovers and current best friends, played in the film by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston. With her biological clock ticking and dim prospects for a long-term relationship, Kassie resolves to find a sperm donor, a process that has her eyeing candidates like prime cuts of beef.
Stung that he’s not on the genetic shortlist — he’s an egghead, but neurotic and short — Wally is stung further when Kassie throws an “I’m Getting Pregnant” party with prize pony Roland (Patrick Wilson) as the guest of honor. So in a fit of pique, he slips into Kassie’s bathroom and replaces Roland’s sperm with his own.
Now here’s a little more background: In Eugenides’ story, Wally had gotten Kassie pregnant during their time together and she had an abortion — one of three in her life, in addition to a fourth pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage. Wally had always wondered what their child would have looked like, and making the switch was an act of extreme passive-aggression, with results both intended and sad. In the movie, the bathroom scene is a zany comic set piece, with a raging drunk Wally accidentally fumbling Roland’s sample before replacing it. The next morning, he doesn’t even remember what happened.
Filmmakers are entitled to take liberties with source material, of course, and in a case like “Baster,” where the story ends in Act One, it’s essential. But screenwriter Allan Loeb and Blades Of Glory directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck are so determined to pry a romantic comedy out of Eugenides’ acrid little story that they wind up gutting it completely.
