'Cheaper' has its moments, but could have been more
Shawn Levy
Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Tom Welling, Ashton Kutcher, Piper Perabo, Hilary Duff
General
The always-charming Martin was in need of this Stateside box office success after a couple of non-starters … but lots of money does not make it a true hit.
The film is a re-make of the l950 Clifton Webb-Myrna Loy film, based on the true story of the life and times of a LARGE family, but while it has its moments, and while Martin is always worth watching, the viewer can see the cracks and see through the indifferently-constructed screenplay.
It never quite manages to live up to its promise, even though audiences across the Atlantic appear to have taken the film to their hearts.
Martin plays, in much the same way as he did in Parenthood and Father of the Bride, the befuddled father of a brood of stereotype kids - the noisy one, the quiet one, the goodie one, the impish one, the clever one, the dumb one - living in the neatly-trimmed suburbs of a small town.
He's the local college football coach, and when his writer wife (Hunt) has to go on a promotional tour for her book - Cheaper by the Dozen - he has to cope with the chaos of his gang.
It is an okay film, but one which could have been so much better, so much funnier, and so much more observant of what it's really like to take charge of all those little monsters.
Star Rating: 3/5
