BREAKING IN MOVIE REVIEW BY Jennifer Ugboh
“There is no greater warrior than a mother protecting her child” this quote pretty much sums up the movie Breaking In.
In Breaking in, the protagonist Shaun Russell played by Gabrielle Union, returns to her childhood home – a sprawling country high-end tech house away from the city, after receiving the news of the untimely death of her estranged fraudulent father. As his only living relative, she is saddled with the task of packing up her family’s belongings and clearing out the house ahead of its impending sale. Shaun’s enlisted the help of her two children to help her with the unsavory task ahead. Her daughter Jasmine, a feisty teenager played by Ajiona Alexus, and Glover a preteen played by Seth Carr, who is obsessed with technology and video games.
They travelled with only one plan in mind that weekend – Drive up to the country house, clear it out, meet with the real estate agent and sell. Or so Shaun thought, things go awfully awry as minutes after they arrived at the house; she realizes that they walked right into an ongoing robbery operation.
The robbers – four men with differing moral compasses, planned the heist in order to steal the cash the old man stashed in an encrypted safe at the house. Realizing they were not alone, and without a prior contingency plan, it was slowly turning into an operation gone wrong. A window of opportunity came when Shaun stepped outside the house to make a phone call, so they locked her out and proceeded to hold her children hostage using them as a bargaining chip while they tried to figure out where the safe was. It seemed like a great plan; after all she was a defenseless woman at the mercy of four ruthless men who wouldn’t let anything deter them from leaving the house without the money they came for. Only thing is they didn’t understand the depths a mother will go to save and protect her young ones.
Things go downhill from there as Shaun tries out everything humanly possible to get her kids out of the house, with her knowledge of the nooks and crannies of the property giving her the upper hand.
This movie was Union’s Producer debut, and she killed both roles. Her performance was believable and her stellar acting shone through in every scene. The lighting and sound was just right and the stunts had me on the edge of my seat. However, I found myself feeling a little dissatisfied at how the movie ended. The expectations I had before seeing the movie probably ruined the experience for me.
In all Breaking In, is a good movie one that celebrates the strengths and depths of a mother’s love, a perfect recommendation for a ‘Mummy and me’ movie date.
TITLE: Breaking In
GENRE: Action Thriller
DIRECTOR: James Mc Teigwe
RUNNING TIME: 88 Minutes
RATING: Three stars
REVIEWED BY: Jennifer Ugboh
