Kevin Hart has been one of the biggest names in comedy for the past 2 decades. Everyone knows the name and has seen either his hilarious specials or some of his most popular movies. As a comedian, you ride that wave as long as you can, but eventually, it can get stale. The best comedians pivot and try something different when they feel that wave starting to fall, and Hart is doing just that. With Fatherhood, he is taking his first dramatic role as a leading man and I have to say, it works. While there is a lot of room for improvement for Hart, he shows a ton of promise in this otherwise very enjoyable and heartwarming movie.
Fatherhood is the story about Matt who has a baby girl with his wife. A day after his daughter Maddy is born, Matt’s wife Liz dies suddenly at the hospital. Riddled with despair and grief, Matt must navigate the waters of parenthood on his own as a single father and prove to himself that he can raise Maddy on his own. This is a situation that is one of those that you are aware could happen, but you never think too much about it unless it happens to you. Usually, with parents, the mother is looked at as the one who raises the child with more responsibility. Take her out of the picture, and suddenly that becomes the father’s responsibility. They say mothers know best when it comes to their children. You don’t hear the phrase “father’s intuition”. This film takes us on that journey of a father raising the child on his own, and wow is it a wild ride. You both root and grieve for Matt in this because of course, he has suffered a tragedy, but now he has to be the parent.
Some may look at Fatherhood as a nice look into the troubles of parenting but pulls punches. As far as I’m concerned, the film did just enough to convey its message to the audience. It is neither too harsh to the point of unwatchability nor is it too light where you think this could be easy. It strikes that right tone where you go through all these emotions without getting lost in the details. Director Paul Weitz directs his best film here since American Pie by carefully putting the focus on the characters. He is more interested in the human aspect of this story than the story itself and you can feel the careful and heartfelt approach he has to the subject. Is it perfect? No, but it doesn’t need to be. This film does everything you could ask for from a movie by giving you laughs, making you cry, but most importantly, have you feel some sort of attachment to the characters. There was a point where a couple of years go by and I found myself hoping there would be more past the year jump because I wanted to see this journey through to the end. That is a testament to how well I enjoyed this film.
When you cast an actor like Kevin Hart as the lead of your film, you know you are going to get eyes on it. People see his movies just because of him. That puts a lot more pressure on him to do something special in his first real attempt at a dramatic performance. Many comedians have done this pivot from funny to serious, and many of them typically succeed. With Kevin Hart, I think this is a wonderful step in the right direction. He still has moments of humor, but for the most part, he is incredible as this man who has lost so much yet keeps fighting. He threw so much of himself into this character of Matt and it translates in the performance. There are moments where you find yourself wanting to laugh because of his demeanor, but that is just because of the years built up of laughing with him. That will eventually subside and if he goes on to have a solid dramatic career, we will look back at Fatherhood as the film that turned him into a fully well-rounded actor.
Fatherhood is a solid film full of love and grace that captures the hardships of a truly dark situation. It finds light at the end of the tunnel and allows Kevin Hart to show a new side of himself we had not seen much of. I do not understand why Sony sold this to Netflix, but Netflix is the winner in all of this, and they might have a hit on their hands.
The Verdict