Rita Moreno is teaming up with Jennifer Garner for a Netflix holiday movie that takes inspiration from classics such as Freaky Friday and 13 Going on 30, the latter of which stars Garner herself. The movie, titled Family Switch, will be available on Netflix on November 30th.
Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms star as Jess and Bill Walker, a couple who is “doing their best to keep their family connected as their children grow older, more independent, and more distant.” That’s where Rita Moreno comes in. She plays an astrological reader who after “a chance encounter, causes the family to wake up to a full body switch on the morning of the most important day of each of their lives.”
In the trailer, she even has some sage, if slightly cliched advice for the family, telling them that it “sounds like you need to fix what is broken,” presumably referring to their family dynamics. This is, after all, familiar ground. Family Switch isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel. That’s part of what makes the whole thing work.
From there, the question the movie poses – and the trailer focuses on, is: “Can the Walkers unite to land a promotion, college interview, record deal and soccer tryout?”
The movie is based on the book “Bedtime For Mommy” by Amy Krouse-Rosenthal. It also stars Emma Myers, Brady Noon, Bashir Salahuddin, Matthias Schweighöfer, Xosha Roquemore, Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, Paul Scheer and Fortune Feimster.
We only needed Moreno and the premise to be convinced, honestly. All holiday movies tend to blend together, and at the very least this one is going to stand out. But if you add Rita Moreno, then we’ll definitely tune in.