Synopsis
The Baker brood moves to Chicago after patriarch Tom gets a job coaching football at Northwestern University, forcing his writer wife, Mary, and the couple's 12 children to make a major adjustment. The transition works well until work demands pull the parents away from home, leaving the kids bored -- and increasingly mischievous.
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Cast
- Steve MartinTom Baker
- Bonnie HuntKate Baker
- Piper PeraboNora Baker
- Tom WellingCharlie Baker
- Hilary DuffLorraine Baker
- Kevin G. SchmidtHenry Baker
- Alyson StonerSarah Baker
- Jacob SmithJake Baker
- Liliana MumyJessica Baker
- Morgan YorkKim Baker
- 75
Entertainment Weekly
Martin and Hunt are exactly the right lively but not sticky authority figures to keep the house (and the comedy pace) bouncing. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
Lighthearted fun. - 60
Village Voice
Solidifying his funnyman rep, Ashton Kutcher appears as oldest child Piper Perabo's model-actor boyfriend, a delightfully brainless narcissist. - 60
Chicago Reader
Be forewarned: this comedy bears only the faintest resemblance to the classic book and film of the same name. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
Thanks to Martin and Hunt, who both have a seemingly casual flair for mining laughs from even the most generic lines of dialogue, Cheaper by the Dozen works better than it might have in less capable hands, but even they're challenged by some of the picture's forced mood swings. - 50
Los Angeles Times
As synthetic as a plastic Christmas tree. - 40
Variety
Unfortunately knows no tone between schmaltzy/gooey and slapstick/gross-out. Pic is as far from the original pic and its autobiographical memoir source as it can be while retaining the same title. - 38
New York Daily News
There is not a frame of "Cheaper" that doesn't feel contrived. It fails the most fundamental test of movie logic.