Breaking In review

Breaking In is about a mother who must protect her children after her deceased father's house is broken into.

There is an interesting role reversal in the film. Once the antagonists show up, they are inside this impenetrable mansion with the children as hostages, and their mother is outside, trying to break in. I quite liked this aspect of the film. During this portion, she's shot how villains are usually shot (in the shadows, lurking around). That's about all that's good though.

The rest of the film is your typical home invasion story: bad guys want something in the house, good guys don't like that they are in their house so they need to defend themselves. There are clichés and dumb moments all throughout the film. Although, to its credit, there are two characters who make some smart decisions. But this is outweighed by the characters whose motivations switch from scene to scene and are never solid, and therefore make stupid decisions.

The one part of the film which I really didn't understand was why the criminals didn't keep this impenetrable fortress locked down for the whole film. They start off with it locked, but after a character shows up, they don't decide to lock it again. This allows for the main character to get back inside the house. If they had actually thought it through, then they could have kept her outside until they've done what they need to do. It's dumb things like this throughout the whole film that keep it from being any good.

That said, it wasn't unwatchable. The awful elements kept it watchable for me, and I found myself laughing at the terrible dialogue and delivery at points, particularly from the blonde guy.

In short: It's rubbish, but with a good idea.