Switch
Tags: tragedy, murder

Plot synopsis:
Steve Brooks (Perry King) is a chauvinistic womanizer with many enemies in the opposite sex. But one night, he is invited to a "surprise" party hosted by three of his ex-lovers. Unknown to Steve, the surprise is murder, and the three women attempt to drown Steve in a hot-tub. When the attempted drowning is unsuccessful, the ringleader of the three women, Margo (JoBeth Williams) shoots Steve in the chest with a revolver.Steve enters a dark, empty place called Purgatory. God appears to Steve in the form of a bright pillar of light and represented by a male and female voice. The male and female personas of God tell Steve his treatment of women was repulsive and he is unfit to enter Heaven. To redeem himself, he must be sent back to earth to find just one female who truly loves Steve Brooks. Otherwise, his soul will be sent to Hell.Steve wakes the next morning as his old self. The Devil (Bruce Payne) objects. He feels it is too easy for Steve to just charm another unsuspecting female, gaining entrance into Heaven without learning his lesson. In order to teach Steve a lesson and make it harder for him to accomplish his mission, the Devil recommends God change Steve into a woman. God agrees, and Steve Brooks becomes Amanda Brooks (Ellen Barkin). After getting over the initial shock of his/her new identity, Amanda goes to Margo's apartment to convince Margo that she is Steve. Amanda then forces Margo to give her lessons on being a woman. After struggling with putting on make-up, dealing with her hair, and walking in high heels, Amanda meets with Walter (Jimmy Smits), Steve's best friend. She tells Walter she is Steve's half sister and that Steve "decided to chuck it all and start again, like Gauguin". She also tells this to Steve's boss, Arnold (Tony Roberts) and convinces him (or blackmails him) to give her Steve's old job at the ad agency, with an increase in pay. As part of the deal, she promises to land the Faxton Cosmetics account, a company ran by Sheila Faxton (Lorraine Bracco). Sheila is a lesbian, so Amanda decides to use her new female body to seduce Sheila. Sheila becomes attracted to Amanda, and Amanda is excited about what would be a "truly unique sexual experience" for her. Unfortunately, she becomes extremely uncomfortable around Sheila. Margo explains to Amanda it is her homophobia that makes her uncomfortable around Sheila. Amanda eventually breaks up with Sheila, and tells Sheila she only came on to her to gain the account. Amanda does gain the account for the agency, but not before making yet another woman hate Steve/Amanda.That night, Amanda prays to God for help. She is then visited by the Devil, who tries to get her to quit and become a recruiter for him. She refuses the Devil's temptation, and he goes away. The next day, Amanda calls the last of the women Steve knew. After several days trying to find one female who liked Steve, Amanda discovers, in fact, all hate him.After a night of drinking and a bar-room brawl, Amanda carries an intoxicated Walter back to her apartment to spend the night. The next morning, Amanda is awaken when Margo comes by to visit. Amanda is in disgust and dismay when she discovers Walter had sex with her when she was unconscious. To the amusement of Margo, Amanda tells her she lost her virginity to Walter against her will. While Walter and Amanda are arguing, Margo hides the murder weapon in Amanda's sofa.Steve's body is found in the river, and Amanda has to identify it. When she returns, she discovers her apartment has been ransacked by the police and they found the revolver in her sofa. Amanda is arrested and tried for Steve's murder (her own murder). She is found mentally unfit for the trial and sentenced to the State Mental Hospital. There, Amanda discovers she is pregnant with Walter's baby. When Walter comes to visit Amanda, she begins having complications with the pregnancy. After speaking with the doctor, Walter tells Amanda if she carries the child to full term, she may die. But Amanda is determined to have the baby because she feels God wants her to. She tells Walter the baby lives because she lives, and when she dies, a part of her will live on. Amanda asks Walter if he would be a full time father to the baby if she dies, and he agrees. She then reluctantly accepts Walter's marriage proposal. Throughout the wedding, Amanda giggles and smirks at the idea of marrying her best friend, and gives Walter a very awkward and quick kiss on the lips at the conclusion of the marriage ceremony.Some time passes and Amanda goes into labor. With Walter beside her, she gives birth to a daughter, finding the only female in the world who truly loves her. She dies shortly after giving birth and goes to Heaven, where the soul of Steve/Amanda is unable to choose whether to become a male or female angel.

Review: It is funny from the beginning, bitter-sweet at the end, it is about love, friendship, meaning of life, soul searching, men and women, God and Devil, and even has a pretty good basketball one-on-one.
I watched it many times over the years, I keep finding new little things to love about this movie, it is one of my all-time favorites and I give it an awesome 8 out of 10!!!.
Besides Barkin, Jimmie Smits and Lorraine Bracco (of Sopranos fame) give good supporting performances.
This was a very funny program; Ellen Barkin was wonderful as the man in a woman's body.
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.
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.
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..
An amusing film where a sexist man is killed by one of his girlfriends, and sent back to earth to live in a woman's body.
I didn't know what to expect, and I found myself laughing at the daffy, zany, madcap adventures of a guy in a woman's body.Ellen Barkin gives a hilarious performance.
My laughter reached it's climax when Barkin jumped on the guy's back in the center of the bartender's station.I usually grade a movie on entertainment value and this one gets a 10 out of 10 for the simple fact that it made me laugh out loud more than any other.
God and the Devil aren't sure where his soul belongs, so they tell him that he will be allowed to return to life for a limited time in order for him to find one woman who likes him.
She retains his memory and chooses to call herself Amanda Brooks.Ellen Barkin has a remarkable performance as a womanizer in a woman's body.
There is a vast difference in personalities between Barkin's Amanda/Steve and Julie Andrews' Victor/Victoria.Lorraine Bracco also is great in her quiet understated role as major cosmetics client Sheila Faxton.In addition to watching some great performances, the movie has some pretty funny bits, although some got repetitive.
Also, while obviously gorgeous, I don't think then 37-year old Ellen Barkin looked as strikingly sexy as Amanda as the male characters (and Amanda herself) thought she did.
'Switch' could have been a brilliant gender-role satire like Edwards' earlier 'Victor/Victoria'.
The most he says is 'Men can't be more like women because men only think of sex.' The three main male characters - Steve, Walter, and Arnold - are all driven almost purely by sex.
Instead, we get a movie that is comprised mostly of jokes about high heels, breasts, sex, and makeup.All of the problems come from Edwards' direction.
Ellen Barkin gives the best performance in the movie, and she must have had the hardest time.
She is basically playing a man trapped in a woman's body, but the character is made up of nothing but stereotypes: she drinks, smokes, swears,  ogles women (including herself), and has little redeeming value.
She says "Men can say 'I'd like to get laid.' This isn't right for a woman to feel?" This whole path of character development is really hard to swallow from someone who has been female for less than a week.
Jimmy Smits does a credible job, even if he comes across as flat.Despite my laying into Blake Edwards for the choices he made, this movie really isn't as bad as I may make it sound.
Watch it as a minor entry into the director's body of work, a performance from an actor/actress you like, or as part of a 'Gender in the Media' class.
I loved Ellen Barkin's portrayal of a man caught in a woman's body.
(This is so close to real life, that it makes me happy every time I watch it.) The ladies also are too funny while plotting the murder and trying to cover it up.
Ellen Barkin pulls in a funny, realistic performance as a man out of his element, JoBeth Williams is deliciously trashy, but the film's greatest saving grace is Jimmy Smits as the one sweet, mature, sensitive guy..
I just finished watching this movie on youtube and i absolutely enjoyed it, I love gender bender films and this one's on my top list.
"Switch" is another movie to explore the differences between men and women in a light romantic comedy setting.
God refuses to let Steve into Heaven until he can find one woman who truly loves him unconditionally.
The movie's plot focuses on Steve/Amanda's attempt to find one woman who loves him unconditionally.
Blake Edwards characters are made more vibrant by combining a cynicism and lust for life that makes his brilliant dialog both poignant and very funny.
I didn't know much about Ellen Barkin before this movie but, it seems comedy was not her forte.
Elements of it are hilarious as when the man in Ellen Barkin's body first tries to apply makeup and walk in high heels.
Some 18 years later, I remember Barkin did a brilliant job of acting like a man acting like a woman and the makeup line, delivered while she staggers and stumbles down the hall, still cracks me up.
But the Devil (Bruce Payne) makes an deal with the angels to make him suffer for his mistakes and to become an attractive woman (Ellen Barkin).
He/She realized, it is tough begin an woman.Written and Directed by Blake Edwards (Breakfest at Tiffany's, Skin Deep, 10) made an amusing, fantasy/comedy with an terrific performance by Barkin with the heart of a stud.
There is some good supporting performance coming from Smith's as a charming, good-hearted man and JoBeth Williams as a trashy rich woman, who is one of the three killers, who murdered Steve.
Here is the quote from the page on Cleo/Leo and the review (saying it was better than this one) is attached (I personally loved this one and got a real kick out of seeing it brought from low budget to high budget and some (yikes) 7 years LATER I worked side by side WITH JoBeth teaching her sign for the TV movie "Breaking Through" as technical adviser and Co-Starring as Sister Anne in this based on a true life story.you can check out this quote by going to my name : Jennifer Delora or to Cleo/Leo on the IMDb."Essentially the same story Blake Edwards released two years later ("Switch" (1991)) told by a cast of B-movie actors, scream queens and ex-porn stars.
Deeply flawed don't get me wrong, but far better then Edwards' go at the same subject.Written and directed by Chuck Vincent (also well known for his XXX origins), "Cleo/Leo" is far bolder then most gender switching comedies.
Side by side against it companions in the vary small genre of reincarnated sex change centered comedies this little movie is at times surprisingly unflinching, and funny to boot.Don't get me wrong, as I said its flaws are many, and worse still this seldom re-released video is very hard to find.
But it is a cute B-movie and worth the watching time if you some times like your comedies cheesy, cheap, and adolescent.
"funny thing is, when I worked with JoBeth and was in touch with her when I was in LA - I had never realized it because I hadn't seen the film in a long time so it's kind of funny, especially since my career in the 80's (I'm still working but the IMDb is not up to date), I was told I looked like her; when me met in 96, found it to be true and got it from a lot of people so it's humorous to me.
Blake Edward's had the potential to produce an all out gender bender riot of a comedy, when in reality it was kind of funny, had some funny gender bender moment's, but then all of a sudden it became a over complicated sex comedy that was sending so many mixed message's that toward's the end of the film the pace changed dramatically and it was no longer funny, or touching it became surreal.
Now there is nothing wrong with those comparison's but when your watching a movie that is supposed to be a hilarious comedy about switching sex's then it's understandable to be disappointed.
When Steve arrives back on earth as Steve sister, instead of revenging his ex-girlfriend's for his death, and teaching them a lesson, or even getting involved in helping a poor helpless guy learn how to treat a woman, the plot ignores these typically explored avenue's of gender swapping comedy and the film just becomes a long waiting game.Steve is a typical male, so when he is a woman the obvious joke's are in the trapping's of being a female.
There was potential to get them together, to bring more laugh's into a already laugh less comedy, and it could of moved the story along, but Blake Edward's makes the budding relationship between the two look like something out of the 'L Word', and then just discard what went on between the two as if it never happened.
It is itn alright for men to treat woman like object's, and visa versa and load's of other question's that would just ruin the film for you's who have not seen it, but would that be such a bad thing?The acting in this film is impressive because it could of been awful, and over acted to get laughs but it is not.
Ellen Barkin does a wonderful job in being a male trapped in a female's body.
If only Blake Edwards would have had the same anarchic courage he displayed in such films as "S.O.B." and "Victor/Victoria", "Switch" could have been a real pleasure.
I still love Edwards' work, but coming off of one of the best films he ever made "Skin Deep", "Switch" is surprisingly empty.
The twist: he's sent back to Earth as a woman.Imagine all the possibilities one can use to write a great screenplay and make a really funny comedy.
When all is said and done, Edwards gives us an ending belonging to "The Man Who Loved Women" when what we really want is one that comes out of "S.O.B."** out of 4 stars.
Womanizer Perry King is killed off and reincarnated as sexy Ellen Barkin--a man in a woman's body!
Flaccid time-waster didn't even attract top talent: Barkin, so promising earlier in her career, manages to whittle her character's personality down to two vaguely different expressions (repulsed and pi**ed off), while her supporting players (Jimmy Smits, Tony Roberts and Lorriane Bracco) fumble about trying to find the tone of this piece.
Ad man Steve Brooks (Perry King) is a womanizing male chauvinist pig.
The Devil (Bruce Payne) objects and changes him into a woman Amanda Brooks (Ellen Barkin).
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.
It's as if Edwards assumes that the man for woman thing would be easily funny for him once again.
Performed by Paul Young & Clannad, this haunting rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" is worth the price of watching this poorly done Blake Edwards movie.
Barkin's over the top performance as a man in a woman's body makes this one almost worth watching.
When the switch is done, the condition that he is sent back is to have him atone for his sins and be kind to a woman.When we next meet Steve, he has been transformed into Amanda.
In one of the most hysterically funny scenes in any the movies, Amanda, whose face we don't see, is going to perform a body function, in the bathroom, but can't find the right apparatus to do it.Thus begins the new life for Amanda Brooks, who tells everyone she is Steve's sister.
Walter falls for Amanda; it's easy to see why.The best thing in "Switch" is Ellen Barkin.
Ms. Barkin plays Amanda with style, yet, she makes us see how this woman reacts to the new situation in her own way.
Ellen Barkin was both feisty and believable in her role and the movie had both moments of true comedy as well as sadness.
Switch (1991): Ellen Barkin, Jimmy Smits, Perry King, Jobeth Williams, Lorraine Bracco, Tony Roberts, Bruce Payne, Lysette Anthony, Basil Hoffman, Kevin Kilner, Victoria Mahoney, David Wohl, Catherine Keener, Tea Leoni, Rick Aiello, David Gale, Robert Clotworthy, Herb Tanney, Dena Burton, Alana Silvani, Michelle Reese, Michael Badalucco, Gregory J.
"Switch" is a surreal/fantasy comedy about one man, sexist, awful Steve Brooks, and his transformation and redemption after death.
Ellen Barkin's performance is so funny as a female actress playing a man in a woman's body.
Ellen Barkin's performance in this film is nothing short of spectacular!
I've enjoyed this film ever time I watch it and it never loses its charm.Lorraine Bracco shines in an early performance way before "The Sopranos" and while some have said she seems subdued or drugged, I think she captures the lonely woman hurt too many times by previous lovers quite well!
Many times I have watched the beautiful and hilariously funny Ellen Barkin pretend that high heels are new to her.
Switch is not only a great comedy that stands the test of time but has a touching ending that adds another dimension to the story.
The character of Steve is murdered by a "coven" of his ex lovers for his womanising ways, and ends up in purgatory, because he hasn't done enough bad deeds to warrant being condemned to hell, and hasn't committed enough good deeds to be allowed into heaven, and so he's sent back to earth to prove that he is capable of giving up his life in an act of pure love...the twist is though, Steve is sent back to earth as a woman, which by the way leads to some of the best comedy scenes I've seen in a while when it comes to gender bender movies- a lot of movies could learn from this one scene alone.Seriously folks, grab your girlfriend, see if you can dig out the movie from the old rental store collection, ad enjoy storytelling from an era that is gone, and that I suspect will never likely be seen again..
It is funny and Ms. Barkin is terrific in the part but it does speak to the modern woman's life in a way I found true and meaningful.
Ellen Barkin's character and perhaps something of the actress herself based on the performance, knows that is too difficult a question to answer quickly and ponders it far longer with the end left open.
Ellen Barkin, Jimmy Smits, Perry King, JoBeth Williams and Lorraine Bracco star in Blake Edwards' 1991 comedy.
He's sent back to earth, but must live as a female, Amanda (Barkin) and find love in order to go to heaven.
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.
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.
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.
Add the naked butt's long shot to know perfectly that this movie cared about sex more than its comedy !The script didn't find any way to produce laughs out of its plot.
It's only the line of (JoBeth Williams)'s character about getting her "fur" which made me smile during the whole thing !Strangely, (Edwards) direction was as dead as the script.
Blake Edwards, a great comedy director in his day, just does not seem to be able to deliver the loads of laughs promised by what ends up being a one joke film.
The 'man trying to cope as a woman' theme is quite funny, and Ellen Barkin does well in this role, but it does not carry the film from beginning to end successfully.The movie resolves itself with a nice sentimental touch, although it is all too predictable.
I think Ellen Barkin is a fine actress, but her performance seemed too slapsticky in the early part of the film.
I quite like Blake Edwards Movies.From The Great Race to the pink Panther strikes again.