1 of 5 | Nate (Nate Bargatze) and Katie (Mandy Moore) go on “Shark Tank” in “The Breadwinner,” in theaters Friday. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.
Embargo lifts Wednesday May 27, noon ET
It’s weird to be nostalgic for mediocre comedies. The Breadwinner, in theaters Friday, is the sort of unmemorable comedy vehicle that flourished in the ’80s and ’90s but were good enough for a night out at the movies.
Nate Bargatze plays Nate Wilcox, in case there was any ambiguity that The Breadwinner is based on his stand-up comedy. Nate is the top salesman at the Nashville, Tenn. Toyota dealer.
His wife, Katie (Mandy Moore), is the stay-at-home mom, which his narration acknowledges is more traditional than many modern marriages. Katie gets a chance to develop her organizational system as a startup business.
So, Nate agrees to take time off from the dealership and look after the house and their three daughters, Gracie (Stella Grace Fitzgerald), Hadley (Birdie Borria) and Sam (Charlotte Ann Tucker).
For better or worse, Mr. Mom was a reaction to women in the workplace as a relatively new phenomenon in 1983. In 2026, the lesson is more than Nate should already know how do things so this shouldn’t be such a drastic shock.
Housekeeping scenarios offer Batgatze the opportunity to do mini sets of his material on cleaning products and the difference between free-range and cage-free eggs. Sadly, a running gag where dry spaghetti keeps spilling from the same cabinet never concludes with a third increasingly absurd amount of spaghetti falling out.
Some modern scenarios are genuinely confusing, like digital parent portals for school and talking to the youngest about consent. Rooting for the spelling bee like a sporting event is out of place but ultimately harmless.
Nate does not approach the tasks with the bravado of a comedian like Tim Allen, whose Home Improvement addressed similar conflicts. Nate doesn’t pretend he knows everything, and his support of Katie mitigates much of his incompetence.
Katie mostly appears on video calls or a brief layover to show Nate is putting on a front and hiding how badly the homefront is declining. Comedies need a straight man, but she does not even get to react to the comedy until she returns home at the end.
Ostensibly, The Breadwinner has a positive message in support of homemaking. However, the way it bends over backwards to avoid anything threatening feels disingenuous to the actual disconnect between Nate and Katie, and couples like them.
Nate is very sweet with his daughters. His indelicate take on Hadley’s spelling bee anxiety somehow gets through to her, and involving kids in the chores is generally good for their development, even if he comically assigns Sam inappropriate tasks.
The demand on Katie is also exaggerated. She has a genuinely strong business, so she doesn’t need to leave her family to develop it. She can have Zoom meetings.
When Katie says this will improve all their lives, Gracie asks, “What if our lives were fine before?” Fortunately, that sentiment is minimized as much as anything else The Breadwinner briefly introduces because stagnation should not be idealized either.
Nate almost has to discipline the girls in the third act, but the film avoids forcing any challenging decisions on him. That’s where comedy could have some bite, but The Breadwinner would never go there lest it broach a method with which an audience member might disagree.
Nate’s father (Brett Cullen) shows up to help but never does anything. He is essentially just another “Dads, amirite?” joke. The incompetent roofer (Will Forte) and delivery app worker (Martin Herlihy) become closer to Nate.
Kumail Nanjiani, Zach Cherry, Colin Jost and Kate Berlant also get funny character moments. Another comedy movie trick is to parade so many comedians so as to overcome any dull spots with sheer volume.
Besides Toyota, Wal-Mart receives some choice product placement with a shopping set piece as the Wilcoxes big box store of choice. The cereal aisle is particularly well shot.
It is relevant that kids want to eat sweet cereal, but Lucky Charms, Cap’n Crunch and Coco Puffs are photographed more glamorously than in any 30-second TV spot. Shark Tank is also Katie’s investor, with the real sharks playing themselves, but that’s just synergy since Sony produces both the show and the movie.
Clips of Bargatze’s standup in the end credits confirm he literally did routines on his daughters, contractors, free-range chickens and other incidents in the movie.
There used to be a new comedy in theaters every week. Most wouldn’t become as memorable as Happy Gilmore or Tommy Boy, and some would be terrible, but most you wouldn’t mind having spent a night watching them with a date. (Tickets used to be under $10 too.)
Were there still a decent comedy out every week, The Breadwinner would hardly stand out. But in the absence of regular Son-in-Laws and Bye Bye Loves, fills an inoffensive gap, and that’s the point.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
