Cheaper By The Dozen
Grade:
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Family values are a little like family vacations--subject to changeable weather and remembered more fondly with the passage of time. Though it rained all week at the beach, it's often the momentary rainbows that we remember. -- Leslie Dreyfous (NY Times)
Plot Summary:
The Baker family with 12 kids has to adjust to life in the big city when the dad gets a new job. After the mom also leaves town to support a new book, the family has to make due with an absent mom and a busy dad. Luckily they have lots of siblings to play with, right?
Opinion:
"Cheaper By The Dozen" is the new remake of a movie of the same name from 1950 which I haven't seen and you probably haven't either. That's okay, because other than the basic premise (family has 12 kids) they aren't alike at all.
"Cheaper By The Dozen" (hereafter CBTD, because I'm lazy) is a typical 'family' movie in ways both good and bad. There's no profanity, sex (onscreen, anyway...), or violence, of course, so the whole family can watch together with worrying about inappropriate material. Plus there's a mix of broad physical comedy for the kids and some subtle one-liners for the older folk so (in theory) everyone can have a good time.
In addition, CBTD is also a 'pro-family' movie with a positive message about the importance of putting family first and being a good parent--a welcome sight when you might be feeling Hollywood has done nothing but cheapen families of late. CBTD doesn't condemn or mock the idea of having large families either--showing some of the difficulties, of course, but also many of the blessings. The film compares the large Baker family to their next door neighbors with only one child and the Bakers are shown to be more friendly and well-adjusted while the only child seems spoiled and border-line anti-social. (The scenes between the two families are among the best in the movie and it's too bad this wasn't developed more). The dad (Steve Martin) makes a short speech at the end that's very similar to LDS President David O. McKay's famous statement: "No success can compensate for failure in the home".
What's the problem then? Unfortunately, CBTD also falls prey to the less admirable traits of 'family' movies. Like most kids movies nowadays, CBTD is 'clean' in that it eschews "dirty" humor but it embraces "gross" humor whole-heartedly. That means the viewers are subjected to vomit jokes, fart jokes, and other similar 'gross-out' bits which kids (very young kids) might find amusing, but adults will probably find tiresome.
More damaging is the tendency of 'family' movies to paint its characters and situations in broad strokes (and I mean VERY broad strokes) often relying on simplistic characterizations and stereotypes to draw its characters, without any depth. True, it would be hard to give all twelve kids fully developed characters in limited screen time, but as it stands all of them have all of one or two broadly defined primary characteristics which control their actions throughout the movie. Hillary Duff (as the second daughter Lorraine) is particularly unconvincing and is obviously acting throughout most of the movie (you can almost see the "Teenage Girl With An Attitude" switch being thrown in her brain) which makes her lines come out forced and unnatural. Ashton Kutcher has some amusing scenes as the boyfriend of the oldest daughter, but then again his character, like everyone else, has one note and no depth at all.
Also, some of the situations in the movie are patently unrealistic (we're asked to believe, for example, that the coach of a major university is able to hold football practices at his house. Um...where's the field? How are they going to run plays without sidelines and yard markers? Also, we're asked to believe that a talk show like Oprah's--which loves controversy--would back out of doing a spot on the family because of a family argument. Hmmm...don't you think showing the family of an author who wrote a book on families not getting along with each other would be a bigger story than the one they came for?)
The biggest problem with CBTD though--and the reason it has received a
B- instead of something higher--is that it reaches its proper conclusion (parents need to emphasize family more) through improper and illogical means. Discussed more specifically in the In-Depth Analysis section, CBTD has the parents making important life-changing decisions at the end of the movie when the logic behind the decisions doesn't follow from the events that came before. This in essence cheapens (excuse the pun) the 'pro-family' message of the movie because it hasn't fully earned it--depending on faulty reasoning and, in fact, selfish motives behind making the changes instead of true concern for the family's well-being.
Content Analysis: (PG, nothing objectionable--from a content perspective anyway)
Other than the 'gross-out' jokes (is anyone but me sick of this?) there's nothing objectionable. Even from a moral standpoint, the importance of families are constantly emphasized throughout the movie, and the pre-marital sexual behavior of the oldest daughter and her boyfriend is frowned upon as well. (The parents also note that their daughter--22 if I remember right--is old enough to make their own decisions which is appropriate, although the parents reserve the right to make the rules in their house according to their standards--also right.)
In-depth Analysis:
At the end of the movie, the dad (Steve Martin) has a change of heart and resigns from his football coaching job.
Question:
Why?
Ostensibly, it was because he feels his family is more important. But the problems within his family throughout the course of the movie
were not caused by the dad being a football coach. They were caused by
both parents being busy and not having time to take care of the kids. If the mom were at home instead of on the book tour, most of the problems would have been alleviated in the first place. This doesn't mean the mom had to be the one to stay at home; she could have continued her tour and the dad could have remained at home--the point is
one of them was needed at home and the problems that resulted were because neither of them were.
At the end of the movie, though, Kate (the mom) has left the book tour and is now home. Now that she's going to be around,
why does the dad have to resign?
Think about it from a future perspective: as mentioned early in the movie, having the dad be the football coach at the university means more money, more cars, more clothes, health insurance, and--most importantly--a free education at the college where he works. For a family with twelve kids, shouldn't "How in the world are we going to pay for college for everyone?" be a huge concern for the parents? Is resigning from the football coaching position really in the best interest for the family in the long run? Wouldn't it have been more appropriate to discuss the issue more fully and have the family decide what was the best course of action for
all family members considering both the present and the future? True, the dad needed an attitude change in many respects--including paying more attention to his kids when he was home, but as portrayed in the movie resigning his position seems (1) unnecessary and (2) more damaging to the kids in the long run. This isn't to say that the decision was
wrong, only that the movie makes it seem as if that was the obvious and only
right decision to make if the dad truly loved his family, when I don't think it's that cut-and-dried.
Problem #2: The major complaint of the kids in the movie is that they hate their new schools. Well, okay...how exactly is that the parents' fault? Lots of kids hate their school... Is the movie trying to say if you don't like your school you should complain about it to your parents--and if they
really love you, they'll quit their job and move you somewhere else? At what point should we say: 'life's not always pleasant and sometimes you just have to deal with it...' A healthy family doesn't mean "the parents do whatever it takes to make the kids happy"--at some point the kids are going to have to accept what's best for
everyone--parents included (not to mention their future selves as noted above.) Note: Private school is an option that's never discussed in the movie that might be possible
if the dad had kept his high-paying coaching job (see above...), but then again maybe not for that many kids...
In essence, the main problem with CBTD is that it tries to oversimplify complex issues. "Family" movies don't have to be over-simplistic (although they often are) and CBTD would be more effective if it developed a stronger, more realistic situation where the lessons on the importance of family could be taught and that had a more solid foundation to sit on.
