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9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Flawed but watchable low-key character study, 5 April 1999
Author: Jasper Sharp from London

With full frontal nudity from every member of the cast, this ranks amongst one of the more explicit British films to hit the big screens. Like 'The Ice Storm', though far narrower in scope, this film uses the dramatic device of the 'key party', in this instance as the catalyst for the subsequent breakdown in the relationships between a group of friends. The scenario is ideal for a low-budget, character based drama, but the Big Swap's fundamental flaw is in neglecting to show the relationship between the friends BEFORE the actual key party. With so many characters, we haven't got to know any of them well enough for the ensuing events to have as much resonance as they could. Instead, the script resorts to the lazy device of an introductory voice-over, with the main body of the film parenthesised in a similar denouement which perfunctorily ties up the loose-ends. The build up, as the characters conceive of the idea of the 'big swap', looks like a cross between Reservoir Dogs and an After Eights advert; the obtrusively mobile camera's only virtue is as a distraction from some truly awful dialog, as the character's 'candid and liberal' views on sex are expounded. After this, the film starts getting interesting, though for the most part characterisation is with broadly painted brushstrokes, further highlighted by the closed world which they all inhabit. With the only interaction we ever see between them being related to the aftermath of the swap, it is never quite clear how they all became friends in the first place. None of them are particularly appealing, and the timely dramatic ending is rather contrived. A good idea, poorly executed. Fairly depressing viewing, but strangely watchable and never boring.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Not too bad, 10 July 2003
7/10
Author: Jatoy from Oulu, Finland

First I thought this is so ridiculous and embarrassing to watch, but I watched it anyway. Actually I would consider this movie interesting and realistic even though none of the couples were pleased with the idea of changing their partners and I think that could have been one possible result too. Otherwise I think the end had almost all the other possible results of this kind of try. Something between good and bad.

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4 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Great movie, 27 October 1998
8/10
Author: Wim Dewijngaert from Leuven, Belgium

This is one of the better things I saw this year. Although lots of people in the theatre disliked the movie, I found The Big Swap a very interesting psychological drama with a good sense of humour. But who am I anyway? :-)

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4 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Too much of the same, 2 October 1998
6/10
Author: Sven Callaerts (sven.callaerts@tvd.be) from Leuven, Belgium

The film is still too long, you see always the same. If you want an erotic film, don't spend your money on it. It has a rather good story.

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1 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Modern analysis, 10 September 1999
Author: (tarek_osman@yahoo.com) from Cairo, Egypt & Milan, Italy

The Big Swap is a new and couragous move from the English movies industry...they explore a new theme...swinging relations...in a good combination of eroticism and marriage-relations analysis...plus....the development of the scenes is logical and very interesting....i recommend it to those interested in the woody allen kind of movies...keep going English cinema...

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6 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
irritating, 11 March 2002
Author: themiddletwenty from Bristol, England

I only watched five minutes of this video. I found the characters so annoying I wanted to smash up my TV set and throw my video out of the window. Fortunately I just turned it off instead.

The characters were shallow, irritating, grinning middle class imbeciles not because they were well-drawn to be those things but because they were the feeble creations of this straight-to-video disaster.

Completely unfair criticism, I know, but I thought it might help anyone else who finds Friends unwatchable to avoid watching this.

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