Fatherhood (2021)

User Review

• 

  d_riptide

  6 / 10

  What better way to celebrate Father’s Day than checking out the film “Fatherhood”, a film revolves around a single dad struggling and trying his damnedest to get around raising a his daughter the best way he can after the mom passed away suddenly. I felt conflicted going into this one because I didn’t know precisely if this was going to pull on my heartstrings like it promised or if it was yet another case of latent emotional manipulation.
  
  For the fathers, will-be fathers or could’ve-been fathers out there, I’m proud to report that it’s the former.
  
  
  I’ve seen flashes of Kevin Hart as a serious actor in Central Intelligence and The Upside but seeing him here now, I can comfortably say I can get behind it. Rather refreshing seeing an actor fully step out of their comfort zone and iron out which quirks about their performances work and which don’t and Hart successfully anchors himself down between his own abilities and his solid chemistry with newcomer Melody Hurd and the other cast members.
  
  Cinematography and editing is swift so it doesn’t cause any problems, can’t exactly fault the production design or the costuming for that matter and while the directing from Paul Weitz and the screenplay puts us through a litany of situations we’ve seen countless times already, as generic and blue as they are, the motions in which they are executed put the drama at the forefront for most of the film and that was the right decision. This was one of those instances where that formula proved to have worked.
  
  Biggest weakness I took away from the film (and it isn’t a massive one) wasn’t its interjected bits of comedy that, again, sometimes work and sometimes don’t. If anything, it’s the pacing because from the time jumps and montages that cause the foundation of the films structure to teeter out, it also skips over a huge array of possibilities that could’ve put the film into deeper perspective; it just left me wondering about what could’ve been in this movie, you know?
  
  
  I can comfortably say, however, that as an endearing story of a father staying in the race to care for his daughter alone, it’s heart is in the right place even if the pacing causes this simple story to lose a little momentum. As a sneak peek into the potential career of Kevin Hart, it represents the best and worst about him…..which I guess is a revelation as to why I liked this movie so much. It doesn’t go for the throat regarding the subject at hand but a redemptive message about the beauty, joy and pain of parenthood is found as a result so yeah, I couldn’t think of a better way to spend Father’s Day, peeps.

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