Cheaper by the Dozen - Movie

⭐ 7.5/10

This is nostalgia bait for me. I remember watching this movie al the time and just loving it. Steve Martin, Tom Welling, Hilary Duff, Ashton Kutcher, it is such an attack of the early 2000s and makes me feel relaxed.

Cheaper by the Dozen, is a remake of a movie based on a book, and while the old movie and book are honestly, really sad and depressing, this movie keeps the family unit message intact without bringing in a bunch of super dark and depressing outcomes. The story is quite simple, a father and mother of 12 are offered opportunities to follow their dreams (specifically career based dreams) and they decide to pursue them while dragging their massive family along kicking and screaming. It is during this time of overwork, on the father's part, and cross country travel on the mother's part, that the family begins to pull apart. Quickly the mother and father become aware that they will soon have to pick between holding onto their careers or keeping their family together. Thankfully, for once in cinema, the parents make the right call, moving to a place that is better for their family and finding careers that fit their lifestyles, meaning that they are able to still see their kids live happily ever after.

Some positives of this movie; it has a strong focus on loving your family and pursuing a relationship with them before pursuing fulfillment in monetary gain or career success. As a father I really love this, its tempting for me to want to pursue a deeper work life for monetary gain, so its good for me to remember that my family is far more important of an investment. I also love seeing the teamwork between the father and mother in this movie. Typically in film either the father is portrayed as a dullard, barely more put together than the kids, or the mother is portrayed as a raging nag who is overbearing to the husband and children. But this movie doesn't do that. It portrays bother parents as competent adults that love each other, that love their kids, that may not be perfect but at the end of the day are a unified team that work well together and genuinely want what's best for each other. Its really refreshing and nice to see.

Negatives? I mean it's a cheesy early 2000s movie. But you could easily see that as a positive. I am struggling to think of a negative but can't which isn't due to the film being perfect, but I think has more to do with just nostalgia bias. It's definitely not a perfect movie but a movie that I still love nonetheless. Aside from the cheese of it, it's a fun family friendly movie that only gets better the farther I advance in life. I love it.