★★½ out of 5 -- Rated: PG -- Run time: 1 hour, 39 minutes
Comedian Nate Bargatze has been on quite a tear the last few years. Television audiences love his family-friendly stand-up act, which has been featured in multiple specials.
He’s proven even more popular doing live concerts, becoming the top-grossing comedian of 2024 and 2025. It’s no surprise he’s making the transition to the big screen, with another family-friendly project: “The Breadwinner.”
Bargatze stars as “Nate Wilcox,” the top salesman at the local Toyota dealership. (Toyota gets a lot of product placement in this film, as does Walmart, Kentucky Fried Chicken, the Tennessee Titans and a few other companies.)
He’s married to his stay-at-home wife, played by Mandy Moore (“This is Us”), who does a magnificent job managing their household and taking care of their three daughters, well-played by Stella Grace Fitzgerald, Birdie Borria, and Charlotte Ann Tucker.
Nate is so impressed by a simple organizer device that his wife has invented that he encourages her to try to put it on the market.
That leads to a funny scene with both of them on the TV show “Shark Tank” and a proposal that has Nate and his wife switching places, resulting in the salesman trying to cope as a stay-at-home dad.
And yes, that is territory covered before in movies like “Mr. Mom,” but it does provide for lots of comedy possibilities. The script was written by Bargatze and Dan Lagana (“Musica”), with Eric Appel (“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”) taking on the directing duties.
I think all parties involved realized that Bargatze isn’t a super-experienced actor. His delivery — no surprise — often sounds like someone who’s on a comedy club stage. The creative team decided wisely to surround him with other comic performers to help carry the funny ball.
Probably most notable is Colin Jost (“Saturday Night Live”) as a neighbor who sees Nate as a threat to his status as the No. 1 house husband among the local ladies. Jost demonstrates his talents beyond doing “Weekend Update” as the two have some funny scenes together.
Other support comes from Will Forte (“MacGruber”) as an enthusiastic but incompetent contractor working on the family house, and Kumail Nanjiani (“The Big Sick”) as a super competitive fellow car salesman. I usually like Nanjiani, although this time out, he’s a little over the top in his performance.
The problem here is that the movie kind of jumps from scene to scene and often feels like a series of barely related skits that have just been strung together with not a lot of connectivity to what has already happened.
One early scene suddenly introduces someone sleeping on the Wilcox family couch, who we discover is Nate’s father. We haven’t heard about him prior to that, and don’t hear about him again until late in the movie when he takes part in an elaborate diversion that they’ve cooked up.
It is interesting that the end credits of the film feature various clips from Bargatze’s past stand-up performances, where he references situations that were later incorporated into this movie.
“The Breadwinner” starts to feel more cohesive toward the end, but overall, it comes across as a pleasant enough comedy that’s not offensive, but is very lightweight.
This might be a movie to just wait and see at home, although in a positive move to entice people to theatres, Bargatze and the studio releasing the film are offering a “Nate Rate” discount on tickets at some cinemas by using a special code.