I think we should all be proud of Kevin Hart… he pulled off a dramatic roll with small doses of comedy and certainly none of his usual schtick. And it works. I was shocked – shocked – when I realized I was engaged in this flick in the first half hour. I thought it was going to be another sail through your head like it had never happened flick. Or maybe a wacky dad flick that hits all the usual new parent buttons. Or, hell, a movie about a hood who is a father… but the movie’s (thankfully) too mature to go for the easy pun.

Fatherhood is about a brand new dad who loses the mom very early on. He has to decide if he will bow to the wishes of the new baby girl’s grandparents or take on the responsibility of fathering her alone. And he takes on the job… which leads to the usual level of anxiety, sleeplessness, mistakes, self-recriminations, etc.

Kevin Hart really knocks it out of the park. It’s not like I haven’t seen him do drama (or drama/comedy) before but, I dunno, this just feels so much more down-to-earth and personal for him. The little girl playing his daughter is very cute and sweet and so too is the woman he starts to tentatively date. Alfre Woodard and all her force plays his dead wife’s mother who wants the best for the child and thinks that may not involve him. She’s great.

I guess the only real flaw of the movie is that it never rises to greater levels of how good it is. It never peeks or crescendos, at least for me. It stays at a pretty even level of quality. But on the plus side, it never overshoots into melodrama.

Overall, this is a very warm, very human little film about family and parenthood. It may make you cry, it may not – but it’ll probably make your heart warm and at home (if it works for you). I enjoyed it and look forward to Kevin Hart following it up with more drama.

Score: 84