*** outta *****

3 outta 5

Breaking In is a pretty standard siege thriller where a determined parent strikes back at the dastardly criminals who are threatening to ruin their day.  With a touch of directorial prowess, siege thrillers can be pretty great like David Fincher’s Panic Room.  Here the director is James McTeigue who has had a somewhat uneven directorial output as his first film is the absolutely fantastic V for Vendetta and he’s been on a bit of a downslide ever since.   But happily he has a solid sense of pacing and good visuals which elevates the rote script and storyline.  There isn’t anything new here but Breaking In does provide a few moments by maintaining tension and committing to the premise of simply being a thriller.

Shaun (Gabrielle Union) is visiting the secluded, technologically advanced and totally secure estate of her recently deceased father with her two kids, Jasmine (Ajiona Alexus) and Glover (Seth Carr).  To Shaun’s surprise, one night her house is descended upon by criminals, the dopey Sam (Levi Meaden), master of unlocking Peter (Mark Furze), the unhinged Duncan (Richard Cabral) and their leader, the ruthless and calculating Eddie (Billy Burke).  Eddie ends up inside of the house, determined to find a safe with a plentiful amount of cash, and he takes Shaun’s children hostage while she is stuck outside.  Now she has to break into her own house to save her kids before Eddie gets fed up and kills everyone. 

Union as the mother has some decent moments.  She opens the movie being likable and as things get crazier, she’s good at playing determined.  The script is a bit trite where the bad guys say she’s hardcore fighter but she says she’s just a mother trying to protect her kids.  She gets to face off against each criminal and has some nifty bits like when she holds a lighter to Eddie’s potential prize.  A lot of the movie she’s sort of crouching about in the shadows, breathing heavily, reacting silently to the invasion unfolding at her house which isn’t exactly the most compelling stuff.  The kids are basically just kidnap bait.  Carr gets a scene early on when he introduces the high-tech accoutrements in the house that could have been a setup for him being the kid tech whiz that saves the day but that cliché doesn’t happen, thankfully. 

Since in Breaking In spends a significant chunk of time with the kids held hostage and the mom trying not to be noticed, there’s a lot of stuff with the villains. Unsurprisingly, they have a testy dynamic complete with a loose cannon nutjob who could unhinge the whole thing.   This is not anything new in the genre but the actors make their characters stand out.  Furze’s Peter is basically a plot device who satisfyingly gets beat up quite a lot and his exit is memorable.  Sam is dumb and conflicted but he’s the only invader who doesn’t seem like a complete creep, and Meaden offers a few moments of much needed levity.  Duncan is pretty much crazy off the jump so there’s no surprise when he starts getting bloody but Cabral makes it entertaining.   Burke is great as the leader, a guy who seems to be the professional gentleman criminal but when things don’t go his way, he gets nasty real quick. 

There seems to be some editing in the film to ensure that it got a PG-13 in the States.  It got a 14A in Ontario which is sort of a weirdly nebulous rating that encompasses both R-rated and PG-13 USA content.  For Breaking In there’s an overdub where Eddie says “Freakin’!”  which is clearly covering an F-bomb (there is a single one later on which is all a PG-13 movie can do) and a murder that occurs cuts away from the violence to just horrified reactions.  If this movie had gone full exploitation with gore, swearing and graphic content, it certainly would have stood out more. 

McTeigue knows how to ratchet up the tension throughout with a gradual progression of things going very badly.  The opening scene is nicely creepy, culminating in an unexpected explosion of violence. Later, of one of Shaun’s hapless friends randomly shows up in the midst of the home invasion which plays out exactly as one would expect to the scene’s menacing climax.  Sometimes the film strains to keep things going like Shaun entering the house and leaving one of her kids behind is incredibly silly.  Also Shaun happens to find a stash of fireworks which she employs like a mortar round on the front porch which is really stupid.   The music by Johnny Klimek accentuates the tension which is good because a lot of the time in thrillers it’s almost entirely musical as people sneak around under the cover of night.  

Breaking In does not elevate the siege genre and it has more than a few contrivances that keep it from being excellent.  But it is competently made and it is very fast paced.  Also seeing a mom beat the hell out of some nasty criminals over Mother’s Day weekend is surprisingly cathartic.  It ain’t high art but it is slick.