Relatable. It’s the first word that comes to mind when you think of Nate Bargatze. The unassuming, mild-mannered comedian has become one of the most popular live acts in the country, regularly selling out arenas. His humor is clean and mostly revolves around his family life. He’s inoffensive and likeable. And like so many comedians before him, he’s now adapted his persona to the screen, although not for the television sitcom you might expect — but rather the big screen. And like Bargatze, The Breadwinner is relatable, inoffensive and also thoroughly bland.
Do you remember the scene in Kramer vs. Kramer when Dustin Hoffman, recently abandoned by his wife, tries to make breakfast for his young son and it turns out to be a disaster? Imagine that scene stretched out for 90 minutes or so and you have a sense of this film scripted by Bargatze and Dan Lagana. Except in this case, the father, Nate (you didn’t think the comedian would stretch himself by playing a character with a different name, did you?), only has to man the fort for two weeks while his loving wife Katie (Mandy Moore, probably desperately hoping for a This Is Us reunion) travels to South Korea to oversee production of a new product she’s invented.
