Switch is just one of those movies you just have to love.Touching on offensive subject matter and being socially inappropriate by today's censored standards it tells the story of a womanizer named Steve who is murdered by 3 of his ex lovers for being a male chauvinistic pig. He crosses over into a sort of limbo and being thats he's been so bad to the opposite sex is sent back to earth to find one female who truly loves him. He than can move on to heaven but if he can't will go straight to hell. The woman he becomes is played by a young Ellen Barkin in her sexual prime and comic glory.Creative laughs ensue as he deals with homosexuality, struggles of sexism in the workplace and world, repercussions of his past actions from women and advances from all kinds of men including his best friend played charmingly by the than hunky Jimmy Smits. The movie is smart funny and wholly original in its exploration of its premise and even raunchy and envelop pushing by todays standards. Although not a perfect film there are some pacing issues and questionable directorial approaches on how he approaches the material times. Switch is still a great movie as timely as ever showing us just how little we've progressed in the age old war between the sexes not to say their hasn't been a lot of progress but we still have a ways to go.

Ad man Steve Brooks (Perry King) is a womanizing male chauvinist pig. His girlfriends Margo Brofman (JoBeth Williams),Liz (Lysette Anthony) and another join forces to kill him. Every woman hates him and he isn't allowed into heaven. He is sent back to find one woman who truly likes him. The Devil (Bruce Payne) objects and changes him into a woman Amanda Brooks (Ellen Barkin). She claims to be Steve's half-sister. His best friend Walter Stone (Jimmy Smits) takes a liking to Amanda.

Ellen Barkin is a great dude but she's not necessarily a good comedian. This Blake Edwards comedy is not hitting exactly. I can see this work if Amanda is played by a great physical comedian. It's as if Edwards assumes that the man for woman thing would be easily funny for him once again. I also don't buy that she got Steve's job so easily. Another thing is the premise that making him a woman would automatically make it harder to get a woman to love him. Although I do like its resolution.

Sorry, Charlie, only good looking men who know how to treat a woman get to avoid the fate of Perry King here. The early 60's Broadway play "Goodbye Charlie" (starring Lauren Bacall) which became a flop movie starring Debbie Reynolds became the basis for this Blake Edwards update where the individual mistresses of a naughty New York playboy get together and plan his demise. His death isn't going to be an easy one. The three of these women don't have the strength to hold his head underwater, so it's finally a gunshot which does him in and sends him straight to hell where it is judged that he must return to life inside a woman's body with the same mind and find somebody who really loves him/her within a set period of time, otherwise be eternally damned.

Coming back to earth in this classic variation on "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" and its remake "Heaven Can Wait", King changes into the sultry voiced Ellen Barkin, and when he wakes up after having a supposed nightmare of being murdered and finds out that he's now a woman, he/she confronts his/her "killers" and thus begins a scheme of blackmail and life living as a woman, pretty much doing the same thing all over again. But a he-man like the deceased King isn't going to play around with men; this "switch" makes him/her go from "playboy" to "playgirl", a lesbian who seduces a woman simply to get a business deal through and ultimately breaks her heart just as he had done with the women who did him in.

Along the way, there's his best buddy, Jimmy Smits, not as much of a playboy, or at least with a bit more ethics, and when the new best buddies of man and woman have a bit too much to drink, it ends up in a scene that some people might classify as date rape. That is one element which some of the critics truly found disturbing and why some panned it. But there couldn't be the final plot twist without that, so sometimes a writer has to take liberties with good taste in order to satisfy the storyline. The performances of Barkin and Smits are excellent, and her reaction to what happens with them is priceless, as is the twist which occurs because of their one-time encounter.

In supporting roles, Tony Roberts, Jobeth Williams and Lorraine Bracco are all excellent. Williams is a tough straight broad who tells it the way she feels, especially when encountering a woman who comments on her mink, "Do you realize how many poor animals had to die so you could get that coat?". Roberts plays King and Smit's boss who is an older version of King's sleazy character, and when Smits gets the axe, he gives him an outstanding exit line. From the moment you see Bracco, she is truly unforgettable as the lonely lesbian Barkin takes advantage of. You can see she's been used by men which is why she switched to women (another controversial plot element which probably disturbed a lot of lesbians),but there's a light sense of reality to her pain.

This is a film which is going to give a lot of mixed emotions to people, certainly not a flawless film, but one which deserved to get a bit more acclaim than it received. It's probably because of Barkin's energetic performance that made me like this as much as I did, but it's also the gorgeous Joni Mitchell song which opens and closes the film, and really gives some morality to an otherwise shady story. Take this movie for the statement it is trying to make on male/female relationships and the theory that people really can change when destiny calls for it. They may not need to be murdered and brought back in the body of the opposite sex to do it, but there is certainly hope for everybody.