Cheaper by the Dozen
Reviewed by Cathy Edsey Collins for Reel Movie Critic
êê½
Cast
Steve Martin	Tom Baker
Bonnie Hunt	Kate Baker
Tom Welling	Charlie Baker
Hilary Duff	Lorraine Baker
Directed by Shawn Levy. A family comedy. Rated PG (for language and thematic elements). 20th Century Fox. Running time: 98 minutes.

For the record, this is not a remake of the beloved 1950 classic of the same name, starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy as true-life Gilbreths, the helmsmen of a brood of twelve. Movie execs would love to feed off the charisma of that classic but the only resemblance between these two films is their title and the dozen offspring that complicate the plot.

In this 2003 reinvention, the family is coyly named Baker (as in "baker's dozen" or always having "a bun in the oven"?). Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt winningly play the parents of the wild bunch, who live in small town Midland, Illinois, where dad is the local college's football coach. As to why anyone in today's economy would venture a family of this size, Martin quips, "I couldn't get her off me."

When Martin gets a chance to move to Chicago and coach at his alma mater, the fictitious Illinois Polytechnic University, he summarily decides to live his dream and relocates the entire clan to a stuffier North Shore Chicago suburb. Meanwhile Hunt, in her spare time (oookayy...) has written "Cheaper by the Dozen," a book chronicling life with 12 children, and she finds herself with a publisher and a promotional tour. Predictably, chaos reigns as Martin tries to manage the household while Hunt is away, jeopardizing his new job and alienating his uprooted children.

Nothing is very surprising in this Craig Titley screenplay, which read like a connect-the-dots exercise in Screenwriting 101 but "Cheaper by the Dozen" remains afloat primarily because Steve Martin and company are so darn likeable. Although I take issue with Hunt's incredibly perky body after supposedly delivering twelve babies and the near 20-year difference in Martin and Hunt's ages, their appeal onscreen is undeniable. And, of course, any film shot in Chicago earns a few extra points on my scorecard.

Tom Welling (Clark Kent from TV's "Smallville") is hunky as the rebellious teen thrown in a hostile new school environment and Hilary Duff ("Lizzie McGuire") is hilarious as the "whatever" 15-year-old, obsessed with her hair and makeup. But it is Ashton Kutcher who steals the show in his few brief scenes as Hank, eldest daughter Nora's live-in boyfriend and a struggling actor wallowing in narcissism. Fed up with his constant chatter about his own good looks, the kids manage to soak his underwear in raw ground beef, making his groin a buffet for their unruly dog.

Although this cinematic trip is a familiar one, "Cheaper by the Dozen" deserves credit for reinforcing the well-worn theme of the importance of family-even if swinging from the chandelier and frogs in the eggs are part of the equation.