Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) Review

Title: Cheaper by the Dozen
Year: 2003
Director: Shawn Levy
Country: US
Language: English

Cheaper by the Dozen was a 1940's bestseller, written by two of the twelve children of a real man named Frank Gilbreth. He applied his job as an assembly line improver at home, breaking down the family home into simple elements and then assigning specific tasks to his children. For many, he proved that raising 12 children was as easy as raising two. That may have worked for the "father knows best". Leave it to Beaver era of family, but would it still be as easy in the 21st Century? Steve Martin would find out!

With his wife (Bonnie Hunt) on a book tour, Tom Baker (Steve Martin) finds his life turned upside down when he agrees to care for his twelve children while simultaneously also coaching his new football team.

Over 50 years later, the 1940s father figure is viewed as an outdated, chauvinistic relic of the past. A faithful portrayal of Gilbreth would have felt out of place for audiences in 2003. Instead, early 2000s Hollywood took a different approach—depicting the Cheaper by the Dozen father not as an authoritative patriarch, but as an incompetent, hapless fool. However, even this version of fatherhood has not aged well. In 2025, this trope is equally outdated, reinforcing sexist ideas that a household inevitably falls into chaos without a mother’s presence.

Cheaper by the Dozen is a manic, chaotic film with various Home Alone-esque shenanigans. It tries very hard to be funny, but much of the humor doesn't land & it can feel like a tedious watch at times. You'd think the pacing would be relentless - and sometimes it is- but some of the film is also painfully slow. This stop & go momentum can be quite annoying. 

Although each character feels like their own distinct person, they do not add a lot of depth to the story & ultimately, except for Steve Martin & Hilary Duff, there is very little character development. I feel like Cheaper by the Dozen might have worked for 2003, Roger Ebert liked it at the time, but would be despised if made today. Steve Martin's best work was well behind him by that time.