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Cheaper By The Dozen
Fox // PG // December 25, 2003
List Price: Unknown
Once upon a time, Steve Martin paid his bills by being a "wild and crazy guy" on the silver screen. But ever since movies like Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Parenthood and Father of the Bride, Martin seems to have become the quintessential family man on film – a role he slides nicely into once again in Cheaper By The Dozen.
Martin plays Tom Baker, husband of Kate (Bonnie Hunt) and father of 12 highly-caffeinated kids. Each one of the kids seems to have their own problem to work through in this film, and while I won't list every young actor in this movie, readers may be curious to know that two of the older children are played by Lizzie McGuire's Hillary Duff and Smallville's Tom Welling. And if one of the younger daughters, Jessica, looks strangely familiar, that's because she's played by Liliana Mumy…yes, you guessed it, the daughter of Lost In Space's Billy Mumy.
Tom met Kate in college and both have had dreams of making it big. Tom dreams of coaching a major college football team, while Kate wants to become an established writer. Early in the film, Tom learns that he has gotten the coaching job he's always desired – and so the family moves from rural Illinois to the rich suburbs of Chicago. However, when Kate's dream of becoming a published author also takes off and she has to leave the family to go on a book tour, Tom is left behind to watch the kids and soon discovers that his passion for his career is interfering with the time and attention he should be giving his children. It's a simple plot, to be sure (and, of course, and updated version of a 1950 film of the same name), but Martin's ability to be both goofy and warm when the script requires him really helps lift this film above the typical Hollywood fare.
If the movie has a weak point, it's the fact that with so many kids, there is little time to develop any of them on screen. Welling is so good as Martin's son, that a movie alone could have been made about this particular father/son relationship…but because of all the other kids in the plot, Welling probably gets no more than a good 15-minutes of screen time. The real discovery here, however, may be young Forrest Landis (playing Mark Baker), the outcast of the Baker family who is so ignored by his brothers and sisters that they nickname him "FedEx" because – according to them – that's who left him off at their parents' doorstep when he was a baby.
As you've probably guessed if you've seen the previews for the movie, Cheaper By The Dozen contains just enough slapstick and pratfalls to appeal to the Home Alone crowd out there. Personally, I dislike comedies that rely on visual stunts for their humor – but fortunately there's enough verbal comedy and genuine warmth to give the film a hearty recommendation.
Martin plays Tom Baker, husband of Kate (Bonnie Hunt) and father of 12 highly-caffeinated kids. Each one of the kids seems to have their own problem to work through in this film, and while I won't list every young actor in this movie, readers may be curious to know that two of the older children are played by Lizzie McGuire's Hillary Duff and Smallville's Tom Welling. And if one of the younger daughters, Jessica, looks strangely familiar, that's because she's played by Liliana Mumy…yes, you guessed it, the daughter of Lost In Space's Billy Mumy.
Tom met Kate in college and both have had dreams of making it big. Tom dreams of coaching a major college football team, while Kate wants to become an established writer. Early in the film, Tom learns that he has gotten the coaching job he's always desired – and so the family moves from rural Illinois to the rich suburbs of Chicago. However, when Kate's dream of becoming a published author also takes off and she has to leave the family to go on a book tour, Tom is left behind to watch the kids and soon discovers that his passion for his career is interfering with the time and attention he should be giving his children. It's a simple plot, to be sure (and, of course, and updated version of a 1950 film of the same name), but Martin's ability to be both goofy and warm when the script requires him really helps lift this film above the typical Hollywood fare.
If the movie has a weak point, it's the fact that with so many kids, there is little time to develop any of them on screen. Welling is so good as Martin's son, that a movie alone could have been made about this particular father/son relationship…but because of all the other kids in the plot, Welling probably gets no more than a good 15-minutes of screen time. The real discovery here, however, may be young Forrest Landis (playing Mark Baker), the outcast of the Baker family who is so ignored by his brothers and sisters that they nickname him "FedEx" because – according to them – that's who left him off at their parents' doorstep when he was a baby.
As you've probably guessed if you've seen the previews for the movie, Cheaper By The Dozen contains just enough slapstick and pratfalls to appeal to the Home Alone crowd out there. Personally, I dislike comedies that rely on visual stunts for their humor – but fortunately there's enough verbal comedy and genuine warmth to give the film a hearty recommendation.
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