Viewers are slamming Netflix for including ‘unexpected and unnecessary incest’ in its new Christmas movie Family Switch.
The holiday flick, which came out on November 30, stars Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers, and Brady Noon, and it follows a couple who swaps bodies with their teenage kids after an encounter with a fortune teller.
Mom Jess finds herself in 17-year-old daughter CC’s body, while soccer star CC becomes her successful architecture mother. And dad Bill, a music teacher, switches with their 13-year-old son Wyatt, a hardworking scholar who is on course to attend Yale.
The four of them transforming into one another makes for a hilarious outcome – but some people were left disgusted when one part of the movie showed sister and brother CC and Wyatt having to kiss while in their parents’ bodies.
Viewers are slamming Netflix for including ‘unexpected and unnecessary incest’ in its new Christmas movie Family Switch
The holiday flick, which came out on November 30, stars Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers, and Brady Noon, and it follows a couple who swaps bodies with their teenage kids
But some people were left disgusted when one part of the movie showed sister and brother CC and Wyatt having to kiss while in their parents’ bodies
The scene sparked outrage on social media, with one person wondering why Netflix ‘put it in a holiday movie marketed as family friendly’ and another calling it a ‘real low point.’
In the scene, Jess and Bill are seen hanging out with a bunch of Jess’ friends, who don’t know that it’s actually their kids, CC and Wyatt, inside their bodies.
When one of Jess’ pals starts to sense that something is afoot, she tells the couple that they should kiss because she heard that ‘couple’s need a minimum of 12’ smooches a day to ‘sustain their relationship.’
‘We’ve already kissed all day, we’ve kissed like 14 times,’ CC, trying to get out of having to lock lips with her brother, insists to her friends.
‘I don’t think so. Why don’t you guys kiss?’ one of her pals responds, before suddenly, they all start chanting, ‘Kiss, kiss, kiss,’ over and over again.
‘I think they’re on to us, we have to kiss,’ CC tells Wyatt quietly. ‘You have to kiss me, just do it. We don’t have a choice here. I’m so sorry Wyatt, be a man, do it quick.’
They both close their eyes before sharing in a very-awkward peck, which ends with Wyatt (in his dad’s body) gagging.
Soon after the movie dropped, viewers took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their horror over the scene.
The scene sparked outrage on social media, with one person wondering why Netflix ‘put it in a holiday movie marketed as family friendly’ and another calling it a ‘real low point’
In the movie, mom Jess (left) finds herself in 17-year-old daughter CC’s body, while soccer star CC (right) becomes her successful architecture mother
And dad Bill, a music teacher, switches with their 13-year-old son Wyatt, a hardworking scholar who is on course to attend Yale
In the scene in question, Jess and Bill are seen hanging out with a bunch of Jess’ friends, who don’t know that it’s actually their kids, CC and Wyatt, inside their bodies
‘I’m watching that new movie called Family Switch and oh my lord the sudden incest is something that was so unexpected and unnecessary…’ one person wrote.
‘The random incest in Family Switch caught me so off guard,’ said another.
Someone else scathed, ‘Netflix’s movie Family Switch has implied incest. @netflix How did that advance the plot?
‘And why would you put this in a holiday movie marketed as family friendly?’
‘The incest in family switch was NOT needed,’ read a fourth tweet.
Film critic Courtney Howard also called the film out for the moment, writing, ‘Family Switch marks a real low point body-swap comedies as it steals from all others before it without compunction.
‘But you can thank your lucky stars they don’t go for the lowest hanging fruit: incest jokes. Just kidding. Those are there. I had you.’
Someone else responded sarcastically, ‘A family body swap film with incest jokes! Count me in.’
Reviewers were have not been very positive about movie, which is based off the 2010 children’s book Bedtime for Mommy written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.
When one of Jess’ pals starts to sense that something is afoot, she tells the couple that they should kiss to ‘sustain their relationship’
‘I think they’re on to us, we have to kiss,’ CC tells Wyatt quietly. ‘You have to kiss me, just do it. We don’t have a choice here. I’m so sorry Wyatt, be a man, do it quick’
They both close their eyes before sharing in a very-awkward peck, which ends with Wyatt (in his dad’s body) gagging
The New York Times wrote that the film is filled with ‘gross-out humor’ and described its message as ‘tacked-on and as stilted as they come.’
A writer for the Hollywood Reporter also said, ‘If you’re just looking to fill a movie-shaped hole in your holiday plans, that might make it passable enough.
‘Only twice did I actually laugh out loud during the 100-minute movie. And it’s probably not much surprise, then, that Family Switch‘s emotional side doesn’t hit very hard either.
‘It’s simply hard to feel all that deeply for characters so flat and sweet they might as well be gingerbread people, resolving problems that barely seemed to exist in the first place.
‘But it also makes the film completely and utterly safe as background filler.’
Variety suggested that you ‘swap it for a better movie,’ while the Guardian slammed the filmmakers for ‘stuffing every gimmick imaginable into a single feature.’
It has received a low score of 45 per cent from critics and 51 per cent from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.
