In the new suspense-thriller BREAKING IN, Gabrielle Union stars as Shaun Russell – a mother caring for two children, all being forced to fend off a home invasion from four intruders determined to steal her father’s fortune. The film is a fairly engaging experience, but not without a few integral flaws. The movie starts off in a very striking way that grabs attention very quickly. Shaun’s father is killed in a manner that immediately indicates there is a something sinister going on. Not long after, Shaun and her two children are driving down to his estate in order to pack it up and get the impressively large house ready for sale. Soon enough, four home invaders make their presence known, locking Shaun out of the house and locking her two children in one of the rooms.
Union herself does a good job in the role of Shaun, as do Ajiona Alexis and Seth Carr in their roles as her two children, Jasmine and Glover. The three of them have a decent chemistry as a family, especially Alexis and Carr who spend most of the running time together trying to escape their captivity, whilst their mother attempts to break back into the house to rescue them. It’s an effectively tense situation for the movie to have and each member of the family has their own part in contributing the fight back against the home invaders.
The villains unfortunately are not quite as engaging as the family. None of them are particularly intimidating or threatening. Billy Burke plays the leader of the gang with an attempt at a smooth, calculating performance, but it just does not come across very well. The same goes for the other three. Richard Cabral portrays “Duncan” as a barely stable psychopath, but ends up being more of a comical caricature than anything. Levi Meaden plays a slightly conflicted character named Sam who simply wants to abandon the heist, but this never really leads to any interesting decisions or actions. The final member of this crew is Peter, played by Mark Furze, who spends most of the run time tied to a tree and therefore doesn’t contribute much at all.
The lack of good villains is what creates the worst flaw in BREAKING IN, it’s just not a very suspenseful movie. A mother trying to rescue her children from four men is a tense situation, yes, but the production itself does not create a thrilling mood or atmosphere. There are also more than a few comedic quips that feel out of place and that further confuses the tone of things. Adding to this confusion is the layout of the large estate that events take place in. Characters seem to teleport at whim without much continuity between the different areas of the house. This makes it difficult to keep track of where they have been, where they currently are, and where they’re going.
BREAKING IN has good lead performances but the inconsistent tone and the weak antagonists take away from the experience quite considerably. The idea of this story is a tense and engaging one but sadly the filmmakers do not manage to capture that same feeling. Overall, this leaves the film with a 2/5
