The first of two movies that came out this weekend for Mother’s Day is a touching tale of a mom who has to save her children from a home invasion / robbery. It’s touching? It’s called Breaking In and it’s a kind of reverse home invasion movie.
The film stars Gabrielle Union as a mother of two who is taking them to her deceased father’s very expensive home in the woods. The house has a high-tech security system, cameras, motion sensors, bullet-proof windows and more… it’s a fortress, her boy says. Which is a problem because she gets locked out when its revealed four burglars were already there when they arrived and now they have her kids and she has to find a way inside to save them. Thus its a home invasion movie where the person “breaking in” is the hero. Interesting twist on the sub-genre.
This movie isn’t bad… but it has some real problems. First off, it’s barely 85 minutes and yet the suspense scenes drag on and on at times. The movie feels flabby and not crisply edited like it needs to be for good suspense scenes. It also feels like there’s a lot of backstory cut out… her dead father appears to be both rich and yet some kind of criminal but they never really explain what he did. And the mother (Union) suggests she has a certain set of skills that will help her rescue her kids… but that hint goes nowhere. I guess just being a mom gives her all this combat and stealth skills she needs.
On the plus side Gabrielle Union and the teen playing her daughter are really good and convincing. Billy Burke (Mustache Dad from the Twilight movies) is also pretty good as the lead criminal… but part of me isn’t sure if his put-upon personality is his character or him being a bored actor. One of the other four criminals, on the other hand, is one of the worst actors I’ve seen in a mainstream release.
All in all, it’s a ridiculous idea to make this suspense home invasion flick a Mother’s Day release but there ya go. It’s not a terrible movie, but it has pacing and content/depth issues. Some good acting helps and there’s a certain respect I have to cast Union and her kids – black actors – and not make any kind of big deal about it. This isn’t made as, or marketed as, a “black movie” – it’s just a movie. So that’s some kind of progress, I think. Nice to have that in a better movie but, like I said, it ain’t a bad movie in the long run.
Score: 70