Fatherhood Movie Review: Fatherhood is a comedy-drama directed by Paul Weltz and stars Kevin Hart as Matt, a widower who struggles to raise his newborn daughter after the sudden death of his wife. He is joined by Melody Hurd, Alfre Woodard, Frankie R Faison, Demanda Wise, and Anthony Carrigan. The heart of the story is Matt’s relationship with his daughter Maddy and is what the film heavily focuses on, while even showing us a side of maintaining a social and work life while being a parent. Fatherhood revolves mainly around these concepts and while it runs into the occasionally predictable story beats, it still manages to be endearing. Sweet Tooth Review: DC’s Netflix Series Is a Sweet, Hopeful Journey Through a Dystopian World (LatestLY Exclusive). 

The best part about Fatherhood is clearly Kevin Hart as he gets out of his comfort zone of playing a comedic relief and gives more of a dramatic and emotional performance. It works wonderfully since he is able to mix in his comedic chops while maintaining an emotional core to it. From the first scene of his that you see him breaking down over the death of his wife, it’s clear that this is something different from him. It’s not the usual squeaky comic relief that we are seeing here but a man who is clearly scared about what the future is going to be like while the entire world surrounding him doubts his capabilities.

Matt's relationship with his daughter Maddy, who is played wonderfully by Melody Hurd, is what keeps the film going and represents the accurate depiction of the difficulties that come with being a single parent. The relationships that Matt has to maintain throughout Fatherhood are what give a boost to the story. His relationship with his mother-in-law being another highlight of Fatherhood as Alfre Woodard packs in a powerful performance as Marion. Their relationship, while a bit complicated, you can sense there being mutual respect among both of them as it has a satisfying payoff by the end of it which makes the journey worth it. His friendships, him trying to be more social while managing a child is represented really nicely as well as it helps the movie maintain a good sense of reality to it which helps in empowering some of the more emotional beats of Fatherhood. It helps in building them up as you never feel a tonal inconsistency within its story which is important in maintaining the attention of the viewer.

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Fatherhood has great choices of songs to it as well which compliments some of the scenes really well as the impact is furthermore increased with it. Some of the visual cues that act as a throwback to what happened earlier in the film is also a smart way of conveying Fatherhood’s story because while on paper the story itself is a bit clichéd, it helps in giving it more depth.

Talking about clichés though, the film does lend itself to them as the plot midway through can venture into a more predictable route. You are easily able to guess what’s going to happen next and that can bring you out of the experience because you can feel the story just forming in your head by that point. Although thankfully none of its emotional weight is brought down thanks to the actors' performances.

While most of the relationships through the film are given an appropriate amount of screen time, I just felt that the arc between Matt and his mom played by Thedra Porter wasn’t explored much. They had a few scenes where they spoke and that’s all but by the end of it the character just felt like a throwaway addition to the cast rather than someone there to provide emotional resonance. Solos Review: Anne Hathaway, Anthony Mackie’s Sci-Fi Series Has an Interesting Concept That’s Let Down by Its Execution (LatestLY Exclusive).

The first few minutes of the film can feel choppily edited as well, it jumps from one scene to another and doesn’t follow a linear pattern, so it can lead to a bit of dissonance in the story as the pace is cut up and doesn’t have a proper flow through it. With much tighter editing and a better flow of the scenes, it definitely could have been more impactful than it was.

Yay

-Kevin Hart’s performance.

-The development among the characters.

-Great song choices.

-Great representation of the difficulties that come with being a single parent.

-Great visual cues.

Nay

-Story can be predictable.

-The character of Matt’s mom isn’t fleshed out.

-First few minutes felt a bit choppy.

Final Thoughts

Fatherhood is an impressive showcase of Kevin Hart’s capabilities as an actor, as he is finally out of his comfort zone and doing something that he hasn’t done before. If you want to watch a fun, endearing, and heartwarming film, then Fatherhood is for you. The movie is streaming on Netflix.

Rating:3.5

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 21, 2021 08:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).