★½ (1½ out of 4)
It’s probably a mistake to bet against Nate Bargatze. This comedian famously works clean, filling major arenas with his no-offense standup schtick that avoids politics and adjacent areas of controversy. He topped the Billboard Boxscore ranking of the highest-grossing comedy tours, with $82.2 million gross income from 1.1 million tickets sold across his 148 shows, setting a new record for largest one-year gross by a comedy performer in Boxscore history.
So there very well might be an audience ready to line up for his starring film debut in the dull, doughy comedy, “The Breadwinner.” Bargatze plays Kevin Wilcox, a father persuaded to care for his three daughters while his wife Katie (a sadly wasted Mandy Moore) goes to work (for just two weeks). The film fits snugly into his wholesome comic comfort zone.
So why does “The Breadwinner” feel so boringly, bone-headedly old hat? Michael Keaton did the same thing in 1983’s “Mr. Mom,” which still feels edgier and timelier than the cold glob of sugary slop that Bargatze dishes out in the script that he cobbled together with Dan Lagana.
Nate Bargatze deserved better than a movie he could use to phone it in. So do audiences.
Bargatze is better than this and so is director Eric Appel, whose “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” starring Daniel Radcliffe was good in a weird way, meaning not off the comedy assembly line. Bargatze’s comic monotone doesn’t always work. He can sometimes look dead in the eyes, like here. Did you see him host the Emmys? Relatable, he wasn’t.
Mostly, Bargatze stays out of the way while “The Breadwinner” turns into a triumph of Sony product placement. Sony’s hit reality game show, “Shark Tank,” is used to jumpstart the movie as Katie puts on her contestant boots. She pushes the judges—Lori Greiner cameos along with “Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary—to buy her invention to streamline household tasks. They do, which means Nate must stay home with the young’uns in suburban Nashville while Katie investigates plastic sweatshops in South Korea. I’m only half kidding.
And that’s “The Breadwinner,” which recycles every Mr. Mom gag without inventing any new ones. Dad mopes about temporarily giving up at his job at (insert plug) a Toyota dealership where he’s been elected salesman of the year. The kids outact Bargatze at every turn. Eldest Gracie (Stella Grace Fitzgerald), middle kid Hadley (Birdie Borria), and youngest Sam (Charlotte Ann Tucker) are actually bearable stereotypes. “Are we gonna die,” asks one when Dad takes over. I grinned, I admit it.
The laughs are meant to tumble down as Nate does battle with an unplugged toaster, trips on the laundry stairs, and panics when he can’t remember where his kids go to school. To compensate for Bargatze’s comatose resting face, Appel puts his star in situations where he can exaggerate his reactions like when he puts straws up his nose and when a toy volcano erupts all over him while driving. Poor dad, he’s so clueless. That’s basically the whole movie and it wears on you.
The truth is Bargatze seems way more comfortable in his scenes with his comedian friends. There’s Kumail Nanjiani as a competing Toyota salesman, Colin Jost as the other stay-at-home dad in the neighborhood, and ace scene-stealer Will Forte as a work-cheap roofer who rivals Nate for screwing up the simplest jobs. And don’t forget Aaron Weber, Brian Bates, and Dusty Slay, Bargatze’s three cohosts on his Nateland podcast.
There’s a spontaneous, improv quality to these scenes that sure beats the rigid formula that sucks the life out of “stupid daddy” jokes. “The Breadwinner” isn’t a total loss. Like I said at the top, you underestimate Borgatze at your peril. But the comic deserved better than a movie he could use to phone it in. So do audiences.