Nate Bargatze and Mandy Moore lead The Breadwinner, a family comedy with a familiar premise, a few cute moments, and not enough laughs to distinguish itself.
Nate Bargatze has been a stand-up comedian for almost a quarter of a century and, after getting his big break in 2017, he was named the top-grossing stand-up comedian in 2024. So, after achieving that lofty goal, Nate decided to take on another challenge and become a movie actor. Along with Dan Lagana (Música), Bargatze wrote a screenplay about a father who stays at home with the kids while his wife works for a change, in a film called The Breadwinner that was released in theaters on May 29, 2026. Also starring Mandy Moore (This Is Us) and Colin Jost (Saturday Night Live), the film has now been released on Blu-ray and Digital.
Katie Wilcox (Moore) is a stay-at-home mom, while her husband, Nate (Bargatze), is the top Toyota salesman at the dealership where he works. Together, they have three beautiful daughters, and Katie runs a tight ship. She has their schedules planned down to a tee with her "command center," and she created a product called the "Star Minder" to help her daughters remember the things they need each week. With encouragement from Nate and their friends, Katie goes on Shark Tank and makes a deal to mass-produce the Star Minder, but the stipulation is that Nate needs to take a leave of absence from the dealership and stay home to take care of the girls. Thinking it will be a walk in the park, Nate soon learns otherwise, and the once tightly run ship is quickly sinking under Nate's command.
Bargatze and Lagana wrote a decent screenplay with a few cute moments, but not many laugh-out-loud scenes. The best ones come courtesy of Will Forte (The Last Man on Earth), who plays a roofer Nate hired who then moves into Katie and Nate's house. The rest of the cast does their jobs well, especially Moore, but the script doesn't give them a lot to work with, which is a shame. Other cast members include Kumail Nanjiani (Stuber), Zach Cherry (Severance), Stella Grace Fitzgerald (Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver), Birdie Borria (The Fabelmans), and Charlotte Ann Tucker (High Potential).
The 1080p resolution and 2.39:1 aspect ratio of the video quality are pretty much what you would expect from Sony Pictures. Since most of the effects are done practically, there isn't much to criticize here other than the one or two green-screen scenes, and even those aren't too bad. As the scaffolding surrounding the house falls apart, causing damage to the house both inside and out, there are some shaky CGI bits, but otherwise, the gags look fine. The color palette is vibrant with varying tones and hues, and the details are sharp and clean.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is also fairly standard here, with nothing earth-shattering to report. The quality does give a nice boost to the eclectic, mostly pop soundtrack, and the dialogue is crisp. There is some decent ambient noise simmering in the surround speakers, but overall, the audio is very good, though predictable.
The Blu-ray combo pack comes with the Blu-ray Disc, digital download, and a handful of extras, which are decent. The extras include Audio Commentary by director Eric Appel, Making of Featurette, Daditude, Sharks, and a Horse: Casting The Breadwinner, Extended Short: "A Standup on Set", Bloopers, Deleted Scenes, and Line-O-Ramas. A few of them are hokey, tongue-in-cheek skits, like Nate's constant need for a microphone that he sneaks on set constantly, but some are genuine behind-the-scenes looks at the making of The Breadwinner.
If you are like me and are a member of Generation X, you will remember the 1983 Michael Keaton (Beetlejuice)/Teri Garr (Tootsie) film Mr. Mom, and if The Breadwinner seems suspiciously similar, that is because it is. Dad becomes the stay-at-home mom and does a terrible job of it, which was exactly the plot of Mr. Mom, and, undoubtedly, the 1983 movie did it far better than this new iteration. I know film remakes have become a sort of pastime in Hollywood these days, but, at least in this case, they should have left well enough alone.
Grade: C-
