The first time I saw Switched, I was lying in a hotel bed in agonizing pain in the middle of the night. Delirious and medicated for the medical issue, I was convinced this was a fever dream. After some googling of “Tubi Christian Freaky Friday“, I finally found that not only was it was real, but it was so much worse than I remembered.
Switched focuses on Cassandra Evans, a quiet nerd with a big heart and love for God, and her bully, Katie Sharp, a popular girl who loves to be mean to the people around her. After she pulls a horrible prank on Cassandra, Cassandra goes home and prays to God about Katie learning what it was like to walk in her shoes for a day. God then switches their bodies and the movie hits all the usual beats of a body swap comedy without much of the comedy part. I think I laughed once at an intentional joke, but the rest was laughing at the absurdity of the whole thing.
I will give this movie one positive: Madeleine Byrne is pretty talented and makes for a good lead. She is convincing as both the villainous bully and the sweet nerd, and I think with better writing, she could actually hold her own in a Netflix or Tubi original movie. I also liked Denise Richards as her mom, but that’s because I like Denise Richards.
Now onto the negatives — if Byrne and Richards are decent, everyone else falls so below the bar in terms of acting. I hate critiquing actors, as I usually find more issues are with the script or direction. And while those things are also bad (they are), the other actors in this movie are a chore to sit through. Miya Horcher plays Cassandra Evans and while she is very sweet and an incredible singer, she couldn’t convince me she had a mean bone in her body when she has to act as Katie. And the woman playing her mother was something else and seemed to just smile her way through the entire movie, even when scenes didn’t require it. It was like watching a high school play but if the actors were all jocks trying to earn an English credit.
These actors were also given an uphill battle because HOLY SHIT, the script. Freaky Friday rip offs are a dime a dozen, but Switched throws in this unnecessary God/religious subplot that really muddles the social media subplot in the movie and slows the whole thing down. Characters will be talking about something totally different and bring up Jesus out of nowhere. It reminds me of that subplot in Ed Wood, where Ed only can receive funding for their movie if they all become Mormon and put in that one guy’s son. The religion parts are forced in and make me think they were an after thought. Also the movie seems to punish Katie for being an atheist, as the only way she can switch her body back with Cassandra is when she finally says a prayer.
Cassandra also goes through this weird arc as Katie. When she gets told she’s pretty as Katie, she decides she no longer misses her family or her life and will remain as Katie because she’s better at it. When Katie, justifiably, begs for her body back, Cassandra then turns it around and says Katie doesn’t deserve her body back because she’s a bully who ruins lives. It becomes a horror movie at this point as Katie seemingly completely loses control of her life and it feels like this weird wish fulfillment from the script writer as something they wish they could do to their bullies. Cassandra then also randomly decides Katie can have her body back…because. Not very Christian of her to do, considering how much she talks about God all the time.
Katie is not without her faults either. Once she realizes Cassandra’s older brother is a former cool kid, she decides to try and flirt with him…..as Cassandra. When Cassandra rightfully says ‘ew that’s gross, that’s my brother’ Cassandra gloats about it by basically saying he’s not Katie’s brother, no matter what body she’s in, and gleefully goes to hit on him. This is supposed to be played for laughs but is so fucking bizarre and gross that I was shell shocked the first time I saw it and just sat there in silence, processing what *exactly* I just heard.
I don’t think any readers of my blog would run out to watch Switched — but it does feel like a horror movie at points, so it might be one of those ‘so bad it’s good’ classics we all love. It certainly is for me.