THE BREADWINNER Review

Nate Wilcox (Nate Bargatze) is left to take care of his three daughters by himself when his wife Katie (Mandy Moore) has to go out of town for a business related trip.

The premise alone is already very been there, done that. The concept that the dad has no idea how to parent because the mom does all the hard work is a stereotype that has been played to death. That wouldn't matter as much if we got one of the best versions of that trope or even a movie that's actually really funny.

The Breadwinner is neither.

One glaring issue is that the movie has no idea what it's trying to be. Is this movie about him surpassing expectations and actually doing a fairly good job as a parent on his own? Or is it about him messing everything up? The movie doesn't know. There's no consistency with the tone it's going for. That issue really shows in the third act, where overly dramatic things just start happening that were never earned. It wants to flip everything the movie was trying to say up until that point just for drama. This all leads to an ending which is extremely hard to believe.

The movie isn't shy about the fact that it has deals with many companies. Product placement appears for Toyota, Walmart, KFC, Shark Tank, and none of it is subtle. It all feels so in your face that it makes the movie feel cheap. At a certain point, it feels like the partnerships with these companies are what drive the writing instead of any interesting original plot points or ideas. That's not what anyone goes to the movies to invest in.

The kid actors are okay, with the youngest daughter, played by Charlotte Ann Tucker, being arguably the best of the three. She plays the innocence of a girl her age well while being the only character whose comedic notes consistently made me laugh. Nate Bargatze as the lead, however, is wildly uninteresting as an actor. There are moments where his comedic background shines through, with a joke that lands here and there. Outside of that, he's mostly saying the lines and going through the motions. I never felt what he was trying to sell in the more serious moments. Will Forte's character was, unfortunately, a consistent big miss for me as well, with his use in the movie never even really making sense to begin with.

Bad writing, an outdated and overused central premise, mostly okay acting, and flawed logic made this the roughest movie viewing of the year so far for me. I even went in thinking this would be the kind of movie I like more than others, as sometimes cheesy humor just works for me.

The Breadwinner isn't even cheesy, it's just dull and unoriginal.

🍿 SCORE = 20 / 100