Breaking In Parent Guide

I call this movie template “Mother Bear”. Gabrielle Union plays Shaun Russell, a focused and resourceful woman who gets trapped in a situation where four bad dudes have her children locked inside a home. While she doesn’t have any formal fight training, she manages to make use of a few objects she finds lying around, along with her toned body and desperate determination to eventually make these guys wish they would have picked another house to rob. Needless to say, parental concerns here are all about violence, with lots of fist-to-fist and feet-to-face sparring that results in a few bloody moments and fatalities.

When her estranged father (Damien Leake) is brutally hit and killed in a motor vehicle accident during his morning run (which we see in detail), Shaun makes her first visit in years to his estate in the country. In tow are her daughter Jasmine (Ajiona Alexus) and younger son Glover (Seth Carr). After their long road trip, the trio is happy to meander through the sprawling mansion and are mildly surprised to discover it comes with a formidable security system and bulletproof windows.

What the mom doesn’t know is, they are not alone. Lurking in the house is Eddie (Billy Burke), a thief who is convinced he can find a stash of cash leftover from the homeowner’s previous illicit activities. Assisting him with the heist are Duncan, Sam, and Peter (Richard Cabral, Levi Meaden and Mark Furze). Not long after the family’s unexpected arrival, the thugs manage to capture the two kids while Shaun is making a call to her husband (Jason George) outside. When she realizes what is happening, the frantic parent is forced to figure out how to get back into the fortress so she can rescue her children.

The script flips the usual scenario of having a cast of innocent characters available to be picked off, one by one, by the menacing antagonist. Instead this quartet provides the targets for an enraged woman who will stop at nothing to get her kids back. Rising to the occasion, Shaun begins to put together a strategy that turns the extended conflict into one of mouse versus cats.

Included with the aforementioned violence are gun and weapon threats, another murder with a character’s throat slit, a second vehicle run-down and a stabbing using a glass shard. Profanities include a single sexual expletive, with some scatological terms and profanities. Finally, sexual content is limited to a teen girl in slightly revealing clothing and a brief moment when a man forcibly holds her down with the intent of sexually assault.

Pitting a Black female against a group of mostly White bad guys, Breaking In attempts to challenge the typical stereotype – although it has been met various films before. On this level, it reasonably succeeds. After all, what viewer wouldn’t root for a mother trying to protect her little ones, even if the concept isn’t breaking new ground?

About author

Rod Gustafson

Rod Gustafson has worked in various media industries since 1977. He founded Parent Previews in 1993, and today continues to write and broadcast the reviews in newspapers, on radio and (of course) on the Internet. His efforts also include writing and researching media in all its forms and observing how it effects society and culture. He and his wife Donna have four children.