“The Breadwinner” Review

In its regressive gender politics and desperation to translate stand-up comedy success into Hollywood profit, “The Breadwinner” feels like a relic from a bygone era in all of the worst ways.

Nate Bargatze plays Nate Wilcox, a Toyota salesman who cares more about winning salesman of the year than paying even the slightest attention to his family. When his wife, Katie (Mandy Moore), a stay-at-home-mom, comes up with an invention that catches the attention of the businesspeople of “Shark Tank”, Nate is left in sole care of their three rambunctious daughters for weeks on end. Shenanigans ensue.

You’d be forgiven for assuming “The Breadwinner” was written in the 1990s and has been festering in some producer’s desk ever since, just waiting for the right comedian to come around and make the material sing. No, this story was developed by Bargatze himself in collaboration with Dan Lagana, expanding bits he had developed through his comedy routines, as the end credits punctuate with actual footage from Bargatze’s stand-up sets, riffing on the very topics presented in this movie. Sadly, what works in a conversational, informal stand up set does not necessarily work in a narrative feature.

Nate Bargatze’s man-child protagonist feels of a different time. Nate isn’t a hard-pressed workaholic pulled away from his family because of a heavily taxing job, he is an oblivious moron who seemingly takes pride in knowing as little about his family as possible. At every new testament to his un-involvement with his supposed loved ones, he might as well smirk into the camera and ask: “ain’t I a stinker?” His ineptitude, though, is not limited to his family as he doesn’t seem capable of keeping himself alive. He doesn’t know how to do laundry. He doesn’t know how to cook oatmeal. He doesn’t know where his children go to school. This isn’t comedy, it’s horror.

Centering the story on such a worthless bozo could be tolerable, at the very least, if the film was funny but it was sadly not to be, as there are more moments of egregious product placement than genuine humor. I didn’t laugh, I didn’t chuckle, I didn’t smile throughout its somehow-too-long 99 minute runtime. One of the downsides of rehashing a story concept that has been done so many times before is that the humor comes off tired and predictable. There is nothing new or interesting here, nothing even incidentally funny in the dialogue or the action.

“The Breadwinner” attempts to achieve some level of heartwarming message at the end, with our lovable loser stumbling his way through all sorts of literal home wrecking, only to offer up a heartfelt apology in the end that makes it all okay. The movie may want us to believe this absentee parent of a protagonist will become the loving father and husband his family deserves, but I was left cold, unwilling to partake in this delusion.

The Breadwinner
Rated PG for some mild suggestive references.
Running Time: 1 hour and 39 minutes

Director Eric Appel
Writers Nate Bargatze, Dan Lagana
Stars Nate Bargatze, Mandy Moore, Colin Jost, Zach Cherry, Martin Herlihy, Kumail Nanjiani, Will Forte
Rating PG
Running Time 99 Minutes
Genres Comedy, Family