Dir. Shawn Levy, 2003, USA , 98 mins
Cast: Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Piper Parabo, Ashton Kutcher, Hilary Duff
The once-edgy-comedian-becomes-all-fuzzy formula is now almost a genre unto itself. Its flagship victim is, of course, Eddie Murphy, who's settled comfortably into his new incarnation as the limp, wise-ass family man. But with Cheaper By The Dozen, Shawn Levy's remake of Walter Lang's 1950 classic, Steve Martin takes a shot at Murphy's title, playing a beleaguered dad to twelve rambunctious offspring.
The story - based on Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth's true account of their life with umpteen kids - begins warmly, with Tom Baker (Martin), his wife Kate (Hunt) and their tots living a happy life in a large farmhouse in the country. Right away, the film belies its roots - this is an idea that evolved in 1950s America and screenwriter Craig Titley has done little to usher the tale into contemporary times. The family makes breakfast together, the kids listen to their folks and they all enjoy their big nuclear chaos.
Trouble starts when Tom's ex-football coach, calls him to take a coaching position at his alma mater in big city Chicago. The kids don't want to go, but the parents - benevolent, but definitely authority figures - get final say and it's off to the urban jungle for the Baker clan. The set-up makes for easy fish-out-of-water gags, as well as a Money Pit-style moving comedy resulting in a few giggles in the film's first 20 minutes.
Then the despair starts. Marriages disintegrate, kids are humiliated at school, frogs die, lives are ruined.
However, there's something palpably sinister about the film's subtext: Parents stay home, kids are fine; parents get big jobs, kids go berserk. Life in a quiet middle American burg is idyllic, while life in a cruel metropolis, populated with rich assholes and thug-life gangsters, is disastrous. The American way is this: raise your family, teach them down-home values, coach your local high-school football team, 'cause that's what good Americans do.
It's all put together very competently - Levy's direction is standard, Ashton Kutcher's turn as an arrogant boyfriend to the family's oldest daughter Nora (Parabo) is solid and Martin is good. He'd be great if this were supposed to be a drama; his frustration and pain are convincing and subtle.
This version of the Dozen family is fairly charming in its chaos. Even with the emphasis on a comedy of character imperfections, the simplifications in Cheaper feel like some sort of live-action cartoon - and that remains as true with Martin and Hunt's glossy parenting as it does with Kutcher as the farcically disposable boyfriend.
Cheaper By The Dozen is supposed to be funny but, with a few modern touches, essentially this is a mediocre family film.
Shizana Arshad
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