Recently I’ve watched two different movies with the same theme: The Backup Plan and The Switch.
The Backup Plan, starring Jennifer Lopez, starts off with her getting artificially inseminated, only to walk out of the doctor’s office to meet a tall, dark handsome stranger on the street. They start dating, and she eventually has to reveal that she is pregnant. Throughout the movie he tries to decide if he really wants to stay with her since he has no interest in kids, and she struggles with actually letting someone in to her life when she has been used to doing everything on her own. In the end, they both get over their struggles, and he proposes.
The Switch stars Jennifer Aniston, whose best friend is Jason Bateman. She decides to get inseminated, and in a drunken stupor, he ends up switching the “sample” to his own unbeknownst to anyone (including himself who doesn’t remember a thing). She moves away to raise her child near her parents, and later returns when the boy is seven. As they re-develop their friendship, Bateman slowly discovers that the boy is his son, and then goes through a long process to decide that he does want to be his father and admit the truth and his love for Jennifer. The movie ends in marriage and suggests “happily ever after.”
These movies speak volumes for today’s society—women are unable to find a husband, so they decide to do it on their own and take matters into their own hands. The man is a little slow and immature, but finally kicks into gear and does the man thing.
I have been trying to decide if the underlying message about these movies is actually hopeful, and I’m on the fence about it. While I am tired of the “powerful women/ weak man” themes of our media, I am grateful that both of these movies end with the theme that men and women are good for each other, and that both are needed for a good home. The Switch especially illustrates this in showing Jennifer’s son as longing for a dad. Could it be that our feminist culture is realizing that women can’t do it on their own, and can we actually applaud a man for doing what he was made to do, rather than condemn him for it? On the other hand, perhaps these movies celebrate too much of the women doing it on their own, and that she ultimately rescues the man? Not sure… thoughts?
It reminds me of one final movie whose ending I really enjoyed—Tangled. In the end, the girl tries to give up her freedom for the guy, but he doesn’t let her, and he sacrifices his life for her freedom. Beautiful. Both acts are self-less.
In the end, the curse has damaged us all, and we have a long journey through our various struggles as we grow into the men and women that God meant for us to be. But oh, how beautiful it is to see those victories.
“Every child of God defeats this evil world by trusting Christ to bring the victory.” – 1 John 5:4
