‘Breaking In’ is a home invasion movie starring Gabrielle Union as Shaun, the mother of two children who goes to her father’s holiday home to sell it after he dies. However, after they arrive it becomes clear that they’re not alone there, with a group of criminals taking the kids hostage as they attempt get what they came for. It does deserve some credit for slightly subverting the circumstances of the usual home invasion narrative by having Shaun being the one actually trying to break into the house to save her children for some of the film rather than the bad guys. However, that’s where the originality ends as it doesn’t really do anything special to separate itself from any other film of the genre.
Unfortunately, the film misses a huge opportunity with its characters in favour of attempting to stretch out the action over the hour and a half that it runs for. The set-up of Shaun’s father’s death and the implication that her relationship with him wasn’t great when he was alive could have provided at least some development for the character over the film, but it’s not used to its full potential. Instead, the characters are very plain – and Glover, the son, is mostly there just to give some exposition at the start before he’s taken hostage. His dialogue has no subtlety at all; he talks like an adult to the point where it’s kind of ridiculous and takes you out of the movie. Especially when he’s explaining how the house’s security system works. Billy Burke gives one of the better performances of the movie besides Union, as he plays the rather menacing leader of the gang of intruders and does give the impression that he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants. Again, this would have been a good opportunity for some character background, by giving him a motivation besides money.
By the last act, the characters going back and forth from the house gets so exhausting it’s ridiculous – it actually got a few laughs from the audience in the end but that probably wasn’t intentional. Despite having all these things going against it, the film does at least have some entertainment value to it even if it’s not in the way it intended. The story just seems so half done, and it’s easy to see where it could have been improved that it’s infuriating. It’s a film you can kill some time with, but it’s probably not something many people will watch more than once.
Unfortunately, the film misses a huge opportunity with its characters in favour of attempting to stretch out the action over the hour and a half that it runs for. The set-up of Shaun’s father’s death and the implication that her relationship with him wasn’t great when he was alive could have provided at least some development for the character over the film, but it’s not used to its full potential. Instead, the characters are very plain – and Glover, the son, is mostly there just to give some exposition at the start before he’s taken hostage. His dialogue has no subtlety at all; he talks like an adult to the point where it’s kind of ridiculous and takes you out of the movie. Especially when he’s explaining how the house’s security system works. Billy Burke gives one of the better performances of the movie besides Union, as he plays the rather menacing leader of the gang of intruders and does give the impression that he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants. Again, this would have been a good opportunity for some character background, by giving him a motivation besides money.
By the last act, the characters going back and forth from the house gets so exhausting it’s ridiculous – it actually got a few laughs from the audience in the end but that probably wasn’t intentional. Despite having all these things going against it, the film does at least have some entertainment value to it even if it’s not in the way it intended. The story just seems so half done, and it’s easy to see where it could have been improved that it’s infuriating. It’s a film you can kill some time with, but it’s probably not something many people will watch more than once.
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