Fatherhood

Fatherhood wants to be a heartfelt and touching film about raising a child as a single parent after a personal tragedy, but for whatever reason, director and co-writer Paul Weitz (About a Boy) has decided to set the story in world where apparently single fathers don't exist outside of the main character, the hero's best friends act like they stepped out of a sitcom or a completely different movie, and emotions and honesty are replaced with contrivance.  This is a movie with its heart in the right place, but it lacks the strength to be brave about the topics it covers.

The movie is based on the true story of Matt Logelin, who wrote a successful blog dealing with grief and single parenthood after his wife died a day after giving birth to their first daughter.  That blog became a best-selling book, and now here is the cinematic version, with Kevin Hart in the role of Matt.  Hart is playing against type here, as he doesn't rely on his trademark motor-mouth comedy style, and gets some more dramatic moments than usual.  He tried this before a few years ago with The Upside, and like then, he definitely shows a talent for it.  He's giving a good performance, it's the script that betrays him.  This is a film that calls out for hard truths, and instead we get pat resolutions, situations and problems that are brought up and then resolved half heartedly, and just an overall mechanical and precise approach to a messy issue.

Aside from Matt, the other two main characters are his daughter Maddy (talented newcomer Melody Hurd), and Marion (Alfre Woodard), who is the mother of Matt's late wife, and apparently does not fully trust him to raise the child on his own.  The movie hints at their complex relationship and the problems they have had with one another in the past, but it never really gets to the core of it, and so Marion often seems to come and go from the narrative when necessary.  She shows up to be critical of him once in a while, maybe be begrudgingly supportive when he needs it, but she never builds into a genuine character with a lot of depth.  Woodard is fine with the performance she gives, again, it's simply the way the character has been written.  The movie also takes a bizarre stance on single parenthood.  Instead of truly diving into the subject, it kind of casts Matt as an outsider.  Apparently, there are no support groups for grieving and single dads.  The one time he does go to a group, it's for mothers only, and he never goes back again.  He's entirely on his own, except for his best friends Jordan (Lil Rel Howery) and Oscar (Anthony Carrigan) who show up for poker night, and genuinely are one-liner spewing sitcom clones who behave like they belong in a different movie.

Fatherhood is a movie that keeps on hinting at honesty, but instead turns to crowd-pleasing methods.  There's a subplot about Matt meeting a woman named Swan (DeWanda Wise), and how he slowly starts welcoming her into Maddy's and his life.  This is a subject that a lot of people have to go through, but instead of looking for truth, the movie is simply cute, with the three of them spending a lot of time together with music montages.  There's another issue with Maddy getting in trouble at school, because instead of the traditional uniform skirt that girls are required to wear, she prefers to wear pants, and is teased by the other kids for wearing "boys" clothes.  Again, the movie could really dig into some issues here that certain parents may have to face, and again it fumbles by not really treating it with any realism.  Instead, it sort of creates a running gag about having Kevin Hart having to dodge a teacher who keeps on trying to bring it up with him.  The fact that the movie closes things out with a gag having him show up to school wearing a skirt tells you that the filmmakers don't care about being honest, and just want to be cute.

It's frustrating, because you can see the movie that the filmmakers are trying to make.  Paul Weitz has made some good, emotional movies that I have enjoyed in the past, but here, he is speaking through Hollywood comedy formula instead of the heart.  And again, Kevin Hart shows off some impressive acting here, but you can tell that it's all what he brings to the performance, and not credit to the script or the dialogue.  There's simply a hollowness that I felt here.  For whatever reason, the filmmakers have failed to make a movie that is truly about moving on from grief and loss, and instead just plug in a lot of tired cliches.  Do we really need more jokes about dads not being able to change diapers?  Instead of plugging in these automatic elements, why not really go to the heart of the matter, and explore how these characters are feeling?  Why not give the audience something to chew on?  All this wants to do is make sure we feel good, and I think that's the wrong approach.

Because of this, Fatherhood feels largely like a missed opportunity.  The filmmakers had a great chance to make something emotional here, it's too bad they lost their nerve, and instead made something safe and somewhat disposable.  Maybe this is an example of studio interference, but all I know is that I felt a bit short-changed watching this.

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