Cheaper by the Dozen (2003 film)

''Cheaper by the Dozen'' is a 2003 American family comedy film directed by Shawn Levy. It is a remake of the 1950 film of the same name. Both films were inspired by the semi-autobiographical book '' Cheaper by the Dozen'' by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and his sister Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. The 2003 version stars Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Hilary Duff, Tom Welling, and Piper Perabo.

The film was released on December 25, 2003, by 20th Century Fox and grossed $190 million worldwide against a $40 million budget. The Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus criticized the film for its lack of humor.

A sequel, ''Cheaper by the Dozen 2'', was released in 2005. Another remake was released in 2022 on Disney+.

Plot

Tom and Kate Baker have raised their twelve children: Nora, Charlie, Lorraine, Henry, Sarah, Jake, Mark, Jessica, Kim, Mike, Kyle, and Nigel, in Midland, Illinois. Kate narrates throughout the film and hopes to publish the book she has written telling about the family's story. Tom receives a job offer from Shake McGuire to coach football at his alma mater in Evanston. Tom accepts the offer, but the children oppose his decision to move and are unwilling to leave their friends. The atmosphere at the Bakers' new house becomes tense, and Charlie and Mark are bullied at their respective schools.

Kate embarks on a national book tour to promote her newly published book. Tom has Nora and her self-absorbed boyfriend, Hank, help look after the other children while Kate is away. The younger children dislike Hank as he hates children. When Hank arrives, the children trip him into a kiddie pool filled with dirty water then soak his underwear in raw meat while he is showering. At lunch, the children unleash their dog on him. Nora and Hank storm off, and Tom angrily cuts off the children's allowances for their actions.

After a chaotic night, Tom realizes he cannot handle the children on his own. No babysitter is willing to work with a family this large, so Tom brings the football players to practice in the living room for Saturday night's game as the children do their chores. The younger children crash the birthday party of their neighbor, Dylan Shenk, which Tom had forbidden them to attend for fighting in school and not doing their chores. When a frustrated and homesick Charlie is taken off his school's football team, he accuses Tom of moving for selfish reasons. Tom discovers Hank sneaked in and slept over, violating the rules. Hank upsets Nora by saying he does not want children and expects her to feel the same.

Kate gets a call from the children about the chaos and cancels her book tour. Her publisher instead invites Oprah Winfrey to film the Bakers in their home. Despite Kate's coaching, the Bakers cannot recreate the loving, strongly bonded family she describes in her book. Before the filming starts, Mark is upset when his pet frog dies, but Sarah coldly says nobody cares, causing a fight to erupt and the producers tell Winfrey to cancel the filming.

Later that night, Kate discovers that Mark has ran away from home. Tom believes Mark is trying to return to the Bakers' old home and finds him on a train bound for Midland. The Bakers reunite the next day and begin to address their issues. Tom retires from his job to spend more time with his family. At the end of the film, the Bakers celebrate Christmas together as the chandelier in their living room breaks off the ceiling and crashes to the floor.

Cast

Bakers

* Steve Martin as Tom Baker, the patriarch of the Baker family
* Bonnie Hunt as Kate Baker, the matriarch of the Baker family and the narrator of the film
* Piper Perabo as Nora Baker, the eldest Baker child
* Tom Welling as Charlie Baker, the second Baker child
* Hilary Duff as Lorraine Baker, the third Baker child
* Kevin G. Schmidt as Henry Baker, the fourth Baker child
* Alyson Stoner as Sarah Baker, the fifth Baker child
* Jacob Smith as Jake Baker, the sixth Baker child
* Forrest Landis as Mark Baker, the seventh Baker child whom the other children claimed to have been delivered by FedEx.
* Liliana Mumy and Morgan York as Jessica and Kim Baker, the eighth and ninth Baker children and fraternal twin girls
* Blake Woodruff as Mike Baker, the tenth Baker child
* Brent and Shane Kinsman as Kyle and Nigel Baker, the youngest Baker children and identical twin boys

Others

* Paula Marshall and Alan Ruck as Tina and Bill Shenk, the Baker family's new neighbors
* Steven Anthony Lawrence as Dylan Shenk, Tina and Bill's son who befriends the younger Baker children
* Richard Jenkins as Shake McGuire, Tom's colleague and friend
* Vanessa Bell Calloway as Diana Phillips, Kate's agent
* Ashton Kutcher as Hank (uncredited), Nora's child-hating and lazy boyfriend
* Tiffany Dupont as Beth, Charlie's girlfriend
* Cody Linley as Quinn
* Joel McCrary as Gil
* Dax Shepard as Camera Crew Member
* Regis Philbin as himself
* Kelly Ripa as herself
* Amy Hill as Miss Hozzie, Kyle and Nigel's kindergarten teacher

The film's director Shawn Levy makes a cameo as a reporter. Jared Padalecki has an uncredited cameo as an unnamed bully that causes problems for Charlie. Wayne Knight has an uncredited cameo as Pete, the electrician whose repairs on the family's chandelier cause him to fall off of his ladder through two different incidents.

Soundtrack

Other compositions used in the movie are "Classical Gas" by Mason Williams and Carl Orff's " O Fortuna", among others.

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 24% rating based on reviews from 119 critics and an average score of 4.58/10. The site's consensus reads: "In this family of twelve children, much chaos ensues, but little hilarity." On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 46 out of 100 based on 30 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an A− grade.

Despite this, the film was given "Two Thumbs Up" from Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper on their television show. Ebert in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and called it "lighthearted fun".

Robert Koehler of ''Variety'' was critical of the uneven tone of the film, varying between "schmaltzy/gooey and slapstick/gross-out" and wrote that it was "as far from the original pic and its autobiographical memoir source as it can be while retaining the same title" but predicted a wide ranging audience for the film.

Box office

The film ranked at #2 for the weekend, grossing $27,557,647 in its opening weekend ($35,397,241 including its Thursday Christmas Day gross of $7,839,594) from 3,298 theaters for an average of $8,356 per theater ($10,733 average per theater over four days), being kept from the top spot by '' The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King''. The film went on to gross $138,614,544 in North America, and an additional $51,597,569 internationally, for a total gross of $190,212,113 worldwide, nearly five times its $40 million budget.

Accolades

Ashton Kutcher was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for his performance in this, ''Just Married'' and '' My Boss's Daughter'' but lost to Ben Affleck with '' Daredevil'', ''Gigli'' and ''Paycheck''.

Home media

The film was released on VHS and DVD on April 6, 2004.

References

External links

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Movie stills

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheaper By The Dozen
2003 films
2000s children's comedy films
20th Century Fox films
Remakes of American films
2000s English-language films
Films about families
Films directed by Shawn Levy
Films produced by Michael Barnathan
Films scored by Christophe Beck
Films set in Illinois
Films with screenplays by Craig Titley
Films with screenplays by Alec Sokolow
Films with screenplays by Joel Cohen
American children's comedy films
2003 comedy films
Films about siblings
Films about parenting
2000s American films