| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) |
| Director | Shawn Levy |
| Writers | Craig Titley (screenplay), based on the book by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. & Ernestine Gilbreth Carey |
| Lead Actors | Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Piper Perabo, Tom Welling |
| Cast | Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Piper Perabo, Tom Welling, Hilary Duff, Kevin G. Schmidt, Alyson Stoner, Jacob Smith, Liliana Mumy, Morgan York, Paula Marshall, Alan Ruck |
| Genre | Family, Comedy |
| Release Date | December 25, 2003 (USA) |
| Duration | 1h 38m |
| Budget | ~$40 million |
| Box Office | ~$190 million (Worldwide) |
| Language | English |
| IMDb Rating | 5.9/10 |
WATCH NOW
There’s something vaguely depressing about watching Steve Martin get all warm and fuzzy in the schmaltz riddled family comedy Cheaper by the Dozen. Why the exceedingly bright and sophisticated comedian novelist playwright chose to star in this loud and charmless remake of the 1950 film is a mystery that only Martin and his accountant can explain.
Whatever his reason for starring in Cheaper by the Dozen, Martin and co star Bonnie Hunt do little but beam and shake their heads at the “antics” of their unruly brood, who run roughshod over everyone and everything in their path, including the audience. Directed without a single ounce of comic flair by over employed hack Shawn Levy (Just Married), Cheaper by the Dozen is a cringe inducing mixture of tired slapstick and gooey sentimentality.
Very loosely based on the 1950 film starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy, Levy’s remake is narrated by Kate Baker (Hunt), a writer and full time mother to 12 children ranging in age from 22 to four. While Kate maintains a semblance of order in the family’s rural Illinois home, her husband Tom (Martin) coaches football at a local college.
Although money’s always tight, the Bakers are an incredibly happy and loving family. When Tom is offered a lucrative coaching job at a university in Chicago, the kids grouse and grumble about leaving their friends behind for the big city. Overriding their objections, Tom and Kate move the family into a rambling Victorian house in a Chicago suburb a few miles from eldest daughter Nora (Piper Perabo) and her self absorbed dimwit boyfriend (an unbilled Ashton Kutcher). Chaotic at the best of times, the Baker household gets even crazier when Kate’s memoir is published and she leaves for a book tour. Unable to handle both his coaching and domestic duties, Tom prevails upon Nora to help him keep the hellions in line during Kate’s absence.
Wearing an understandably pained smile, Martin resorts to frantic mugging to give Cheaper by the Dozen some zing, but his efforts seem more desperate than inspired. He and Hunt have a nice, quick-witted rapport that gets lost as the film barrels from one clumsily staged sight gag to the next.
Perabo (Coyote Ugly), Smallville heartthrob Tom Welling, and teen sensation Hilary Duff (The Lizzie Maguire Movie) portray the three oldest children without distinction. As for the other child actors, let’s just say that they call to mind the famous quip from the late great curmudgeon W.C. Fields: “Children should neither be seen nor heard from ever again.”
Admittedly, Levy and screenwriters Sam Harper, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow probably never intended Cheaper by the Dozen to be a critical darling or Oscar contender. But did they have to go so far in the opposite direction? Except for a funny gag involving Kutcher and the Baker’s overly friendly dog, there aren’t many laughs to be had in Cheaper by the Dozen.
If you’re looking for a charming and engaging comedy about a large family, skip the remake and rent the original Cheaper by the Dozen or Yours, Mine and Ours (1968), which stars the winning duo of Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball as the parents of eighteen kids.
To watch more movies like Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) visit Fmovies.
Also watch