The Breadwinner

When I was viewing my first trailer of "The Breadwinner", after about 20 seconds, I was thinking of the film, "Mr. Mom" 1983 with Michel Keaton and Teri Garr. Now, while the reason of mom going back into the workforce differs, the fact that the dad is totally incompetent is both films rings true. Certainly if you liked "Mr. Mom", you'll like this.

Starring comedian Nate Bargatze as salesman Nate Wilcox and Mandy Moore as his wife, Katie. To Nate and their three children, Gracie (Stella Grace Fitzgerald), Hadley (Birdie Borria) and  Sam (Charlotte Ann Tucker), Katie is the ultimate mom--she manages their comically chaotic household with equal parts efficiency and love, and everything runs perfectly. But when Katie's household invention leads to a once-in-a-lifetime deal on Shark Tank and takes her on a prolonged business trip, Nate has to figure out how to keep the house from (literally) falling apart. He and his kids soon learn that while he may not do it like mom, he can figure out how to do it his way. Welcome to the dad era. 

Others to round out the cast are Colin Jost as Conor Ashford, Zach Cherry as Dan, Nate's boss, Martin Herlihy as Peter, Kumail Nanjiani as Peyton, Will Forte as Keegan, Brett Cullen as Walter Wilcox, Nate's dad, Kate Berlant as Angela Ashford and Lori Grenier as herself from Shark Tank.

This was effectively directed with humor and compassion by Eric Appel ("Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" '22, "Die Hart" '23) plus TV, TV movies, shorts and videos. This fillmmaker may not have an extensive array of feature films to his credits, but his extensive list of TV, shorts and videos has certainly served him well. His ability to stage and pace is amazing and the sequencing in this is dissected well. It is penned well by Nate Bargatze (TV) and Dan Lagana ("Right Hand Guy" (TV movie) '16, "The Babysitter: Killer Queen" '20, "Christmas with the Campbells" '22, "Musica" '24) plus TV. While "Mr. Mom" was written in a way that the jokes were funny and heartfelt, this film seemed to convey the jokes in a somewhat forced way, along with the fact that some of these jokes were as humorous as with "Mr.Mom". Even though Bargatze has a fair amount of TV experience, being a standup comic isn't quite the same as leading the cast in a film. Was it a wash? Of course not. It had a number of funny moments, especially when they were on the show Shark Tank. Obviously these sharks were given lines so as to basically play themselves, so it was like a parody of themselves and that was quite funny. I'm not sure if John Hughes, writer of "Mr. Mon" would've approved of this film, but this was a nice attempt of a classic film. 

As aforementioned, if you like "Mr.Mom", you will certainly find this appealing. It would've been more effective to have someone similar to Michael Keaton in it, but Nate Bargatze definitely gave it the best he could. All in all, it was a nice way to spend an hour and three-quarters just to have a funny laugh, and we could all use that right about now. 

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                           Rated: PG                                       109mins.