Breaking In - Movie Review
Breaking in stars Gabrielle Union as a mother trying to protect her two children a son and a daughter from robbers who have invaded her recently deceased father's house they're there because they want something in the house and it's a very well protected place there's tons of security cameras automatic locks alarm systems a gate and she gets trapped outside of the house while the robbers are inside with her children and she has to actually break into the house to try to save her children that's sort of the reversal of what you see in movies like panic room which is a far better film than breaking in because this movie really feels like it belongs in the straight-to-dvd bin which is very strange because this film is directed by James McTeiguethis man who made V for Vendetta one of my favorite comic book movies ever and every film he's made since then ninja assassin survivor the Raven and now this show none of the talent or expertise that was on display in V for Vendetta which is very curious to me according to
IMDB this movie is 88 minutes long and that's including the end credits there's also an elongated opening sequence that's almost entirely in slow motion that doesn't really need to be in the film and that opening feels like it's setting up a far more complex film than the one we actually receive the backstory seems to be the Gabrielle union's father had a bad relationship with her we never really learned why there's very little that explores this it's just that he became I guess a reclusive man very paranoid with something stashed away in his house and a lot of alarms and we're supposed to feel like there's something going on under the surface when all it really is is a very rote and derivative thriller the best part of the film by far is Gabrielle unions performance she's very good she does quite a bit of physical stuff and all of the emotional scenes she does a fantastic job she seems like she's really trying in fact she has a producer credit on this film so she was integral in its development as well the leader of this gang of robbers is played by billy burke also known as the best part of every Twilight movie he's giving a performance that's very curious to me he feels sort of like he's just annoyed his character doesn't want to be there things aren't going properly for him he's annoyed by the incompetence of his fellow teammates as well as basically everything that happens but he's so passive about it that the stakes never feel that real he just doesn't feel like he's a presence to be feared it seems like he's trying to play it in a way where he's this cold calculating individual who never shows that much emotion who only does what needs to be done but it doesn't come off that way it comes off as bored like he doesn't really want to be there one of the biggest issues I have with the film is what it does with the children since Gabrielle Union is outside and her kids are inside they're the pawns they're the pieces that these robbers are able to move around to create tension between themselves and Gabrielle Union they're the bait they're what keep her at bay they're what keep her from running off and calling the police and they're the only reason she's still there because obviously the film sets up that she doesn't really care that much about her deceased father and so there's even a scene where she's like hey just take the money and leave I don't care just let me have my kids and the robbers are like no you don't trust you the movie would have ended right then if they trusted her but this film requires that children to be in danger but they're really not for most of the movie they're regulated to one room for pretty much the entire film and they don't interact with the robbers that much they're basically just in that room for the majority of the movie and so the sense of danger for their lives is very minimal because they're hardly ever in it they're mostly locked in a room the whole film
so let's talk about the Edit of breaking in because surprisingly I have a lot to say let's push your side the technical part of editing first and focus on censorship because there are a lot of scenes in the movie where characters seem to mouth the f-word and it's replaced with freaking there were moments where it played like a movie that had been edited for television with any harsh violence or language edited out to achieve a pg-13 rating now let's talk about the technical part of editing this film feels very loose and I don't mean that in a positive way it feels like the film needed at least two or three more passes but it's already under 90 minutes and that's with an opening sequence in slow motion that stretches out the runtime even more so much of this he feels very slow and methodical and I don't mean this again in a positive way almost every shot goes on for longer than you would expect it to and it
really drags out the pacing of the film and it just becomes a game of cat-and-mouse that isn't particularly compelling I am blown away that James McTeiguethis film because as I said it shows none of the innovation none of the technical mastery that's on display in V for Vendetta and yet the film does have a very smart hero and Gabrielle Union who actually makes refreshingly smart choices she's not an idiot in fact there's another character in the film at one point could have made a really terrible decision but she makes a really smart one and I was like okay this actually doesn't feel like we're watching really dumb horror movie characters so that's probably one of the major pluses of the film combined with unions performance but besides that this is just a very throwaway disposable thriller tailor-made for the Mother's Day period and I just don't understand how James Mattia was involved in this movie it really does feel like anyone could have directed this I'm gonna give breaking-in a D+ guys thank you so much stay tuned.