Fatherhood
Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Summary:
After losing his wife, Matt is thrust into a ton of responsibility as a new father. Most people, including his wife’s mom Marion, believe that Matt doesn’t have a chance of handling even a week as a single father. Although Matt loses faith in himself more than a couple times, his friends support him through this difficult journey.
Characters:
Matthew is a single dad who loses his wife shortly after the birth of their daughter. He is distraught after her passing and feels very unqualified to raise his daughter but he decides that he wants to raise her. Through a lot of struggles and learning Matthew truly learns how to be a good parent and work on his relationship with his daughter while trying to maintain somewhat of a social life.
Sebastian: 8.7/10
Review:
This was the movie I hoped we were getting based on the first few minutes as I liked the drama-comedy setup it was going with. I felt that this movie really combined the heart you tend to have with this kind of drama set film with the comedy you expect from a Kevin Hart comedy. Kevin Hart really is who pulls this film together as he is his usual comedic self while being quite heartfelt and relatable as he learns how to be a father.
Maddy ( as played by Melody Hurd) is a delightful little girl who really sells that she has been raised by just her Dad and while she loves him she has some differences from other kids. Melody Hurd does a great job playing Maddy and I really bought all her emotional scenes.
The rest of the cast fit their roles well and add both comedy and heart throughout. The story itself is really simple and I have seen similar plots but it’s the characters that really shine through and make this the movie it is. If I had one complaint is that the first half did feel quite slow and while I was interested it did really get better when Maddy grew up a bit.
All in all, this was a solid drama/comedy that I would recommend if you are looking for a new film to watch on Netflix.
Favourite Moment (Spoilers):
When Matthew, Maddy, and Matthew’s friends were playing poker I thought it was really cute and I like how into it they all were.
Nathanyal: 8.5/10
Review:
To me, Fatherhood is a weird one to write about. Now, when the movie is staring Kevin Hart and it has the tag of comedy, I expected that this movie would be challenges of raising a child on your own with some fun and comedic twists about crazy shenanigans the pair would have. Instead, this movie was a lot more somber and serious. Now, this isn’t a bad thing, and honestly, I enjoyed the more serious tone, as the movie did cover some important topics. This in and of itself wasn’t the problem I had with the movie.
The problem I had with this movie was the pacing, and pretty much only the pacing. After a slower beginning due to the nature of the movie, it never quite picks up the pace. It stays at one speed pretty much the whole time. For a movie that has a run time of an hour and fifty minutes, I expected something more. Instead, it felt like the movie was taking its sweet time.
On the other hand, there were plenty of areas that this movie did well. For one, I really enjoyed all the characters. Oscar and Jordan were funny side characters who had no social awareness. Even with no awareness, Matt and Maddy were able to play off their dynamic. I also appreciate Marian’s character. Although I didn’t like her, I have to say that most of the interactions felt natural. The way each character responded to the death of Liz, Matt’s wife, felt real. All the characters reacted differently, and that’s how it works in real life. Besides the characters, I do enjoy the themes and ideas brought up in the story. Although some of the ideas were parts of side plots, it was still interesting to watch them develop.
Overall, Fatherhood was a good movie. It has some solid characters, great one-liners, and strong themes. Although pacing was a bit slow, the other aspects helped me through the movie. If you have the time, give this one a watch.
Favourite Moment (Spoilers):
My favourite moment was when Maddy was playing poker with Matt, Oscar, and Jordan. The combination of her surprising maturity with the use of cookies as poker chips was a great way to round out her character and add a comedic scene to the movie. It was a nice break from all the gloom from the beginning of the movie.
Austin: 8.2/10
Review:
Kevin Hart is back in Fatherhood, and I was super excited. The tone of this movie was drastically different than I expected from Kevin, but it was still a decent movie. We get some pretty decent characters, from Matt to Marion all the way down to Jordan and Oscar. This movie hangs on emotional moments, and the characters are so relatable. Some of them are likable, some of them not, but they are all written really well. Jordan and Oscar are awesome secondary characters that provide some entertaining scenes and some emotional moments. They play the role of the best friends quite well, and both actors did a great job.
With this being a much more emotional movie, I really wanted to see a deeper plot. For the first half, the movie is really emotional and intense, but it felt like we were heading towards the comedy portion in the second half. It doesn’t ever come. We go from emotionally charged to just naturally funny. It really slows down and floats in an awkward middle between a comedy and a drama for a decent part of the second half. It finds its groove closer to the end and ends on a pretty good note, but I would have loved if Fatherhood had stuck with its identity as opposed to trying to grasp that comedy genre along the way.
Fatherhood is a pretty good movie with a totally new tone for Kevin Hart. I thought the issues touched were amazing, and it was great to see a movie take on a couple of issues that get swept under the rug. It was a brave jump into the unknown, but I thought everyone behind Fatherhood made a good movie.
Favourite Moment (Spoilers):
My favourite moment is a movie long moment. I loved watching Matt learn and grow as a father. Without his wife, he is forced to learn so much so fast, and I thought it was a great plotline.
