A Family Comedy of Errors
There was a time where the path of a stand up comedian was straight and narrow: create a killer 30 minutes, tour that across the county, wait for the sitcom or movie offer and then convert that special into a Hollywood hit. It was a rinse and repeat method that has led to many of the most famous comedic actors you can name today. Though Nate Bargatze doesn’t follow this path directly as he’s a very successful comic with multiple acclaimed specials – The Breadwinner is exactly the kind of film comedians would make in the 80s and 90s. This turns out to be a bit of mixed bag overall, his first feature film vehicle attempting to layer his dry wit comedic style over a slapstick “bad dad” family comedy that only sometimes works.
Bargatze’s own comedic sensibilities are strong enough to overcome many of the misgivings of the latter. But The Breadwinner is held back by its inoffensiveness and stock premise, unfolding with excessive predictability and safe, easy, bumbling humor. It’s funny at times, but the only real conflict is how much that inoffensiveness and predictability hinders your enjoyment of cinema. There’s certainly a right way and wrong way to operate within convention, and The Breadwinner – though indistinguishable from a long line of films just like it – actually does more right even if it’s ultimately not doing much at all.
A Throwback Bad Dad Story
The Breadwinner stars Nate Bargatze as Nate Wilcox, a successful car salesman with a loving wife and 3 young daughters. He is the breadwinner, working to provide for his family while his wife (Mandy Moore) handles everything at home. His only real responsibility is to take out the trash on trash day, and even that he’s nearly incapable of doing. When his wife scores a deal on Shark Tank that requires her to be gone for a month, Nate takes a leave of absense from his job and steps into a new role as a temporary stay at home dad. Except, Nate has never done anything domestic in his life, and of course chaos ensues as he realizes how much work it takes to run a household. The film also stars Colin Jost, Kumail Nanjiani, Zach Cherry and Will Forte.
Sometimes a big giant hug from our favorite comfort cinema is just what we need to warm your soul. I don’t know that The Breadwinner is good enough to do all that, but there is certainly a nostalgic itch it scratches and while you won’t be able to tell it apart from the countless straight to streaming movies just like it, it’s not the worst way to spend an hour and a half. I laughed, as did my audience often, and through the flaws I could see the film’s charm come through. This is largely due to Bargatze and his hard to dislike persona as well as a stacked but often wasted supporting cast. Jost, Nanjiani, and Forte really round out The Breadwinner, given just enough screen time to do what they do best and make the most out of what little they’re given.
Strong Performances Overcome The Blandness
The entire cast makes up for how little meat is on the actual bones of The Breadwinner. The “bad dad left to his own devises for x amount of time and then chaos ensues” is about as deep as anything gets here, so it really needs a strong collection of performers to add any kind of nuance or general interest. Thankfully everyone involved is largely in on the joke, even the young daughters have some fun and funny moments. It’s the film’s primary strength: enough entertaining comedy and delivery to drag a lackluster premise across the finish line kicking and screaming.
There’s just nothing here worth remembering outside of a few chuckles and couple well performed sketches. The Breadwinner’s biggest offense isn’t that it doesn’t provide laughs or silly almost surreal shenanigans – it has both in spades whether it’s your cup of tea or not – just that it isn’t imaginative in any way shape or form. It’s 2026, not 1983, and I just don’t know very many people clamoring for a Mr. Mom remake. It also inadvertently undercuts its key theme validating domestic life, giving Bargatze his own flowers despite spending the entire movie ruining literally everything. Yes, The Breadwinner was always going to have a “everything works out in the end” ending, but letting Nate have both a change of character and be the hero negates the message of how hard it is to be a mom.
Final Thoughts
I’m left pretty conflicted with The Breadwinner. On the one hand, familiarity in cinema isn’t always a bad thing, and even though its bland and predictable and even regressive, it IS funny. I don’t know that it’s funny or charming enough to overcome its shortcomings all the time, but in the few moments it shines it’s hard not to be won over. Bargatze is a great standup, and I don’t fault him for wanting take his musings to the big screen. And I get why he chose the easy road of family comedy to work in for his first go around. The Breadwinner probably won’t be remembered or even well received overall as its more suited for streaming fodder than a theatrical event. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a good time in spite of itself.
It’s not bad, but it’s not good either. The Breadwinner is stuck in a purgatory of a mildly entertaining comedy with nothing of substance to be remembered. It’s a lazy retread of its genre but it will make you laugh if you’re willing to let it run it’s horse – I mean course.
Turns out the key to being a good dad is actually just being an exceptional mother.
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