Settling The Estate

Breaking In
Stars: Gabrielle Union, Billy Burke, Richard Cabral, Ajiona Alexus Levi Meaden, Seth Carr, Mark Purze, Jason George, Damien Leake and Christa Miller
Director: James McTeigue
Scriptwriter: Ryan Engle from a story by Jaime Primak Sullivan
Composer: Johnny Klimek
Cinematography: Toby Oliver
Will Packer Productions/Universal
Rating: R for violence and scenes of children in danger
Running Length: 90 minutes

Sometimes people want to break out of a situation, and sometimes they want to break into a bank? Fort Knox? In this film, starring Gabrielle Union (who also co-produced), it is how to break into a house. That’s right, and it’s not that you have forgotten your keys, it is that the bad guys are there with your children and you need to get the kids out. That is incentive enough.

“Breaking In” starts with a jogger being hit by a truck. Then, we find that the deceased is Shaun’s father (Shaun being Gabrielle Union), and she must go to the father’s house to settle the estate. Shaun has two children, Jasmine (Ajiona Alexus) and Glover (Seth Carr.) They are old enough to prowl around Grandpa’s house by themselves and find that house is well guarded. Grandpa needed extra security. While there, enter the bad guys, who promptly take the kids as hostages, lock Shaun out and let her know that they want Grandpa’s $4,000,000 in exchange for the kids. The problem being, how to break into this well-guarded house and do the impossible—find kids and find money. This is where everything that Shaun tries, the crooks do one better and it is like a game of chess with one person in the board and one person outside the board. The chief crook, Eddie (Billy Burke) takes things easy, but his buddies (Richard Cabral, Levi Meaden and Mark Furze) are hot-tempered. What to do? The clock is ticking.

This is in real time, as one crook mentions that there is 90 minutes before the alarm sounds and police arrive. The crooks have weapons but Shaun has ingenuity. Just what is going to happen next?

Gabrielle Union literally throws herself into the role of Shaun, who goes to settle an estate and ends up trying to save her children. The crooks don’t know what to do, either, instead of a quiet heist, they have Mom, kids and a clock counting down. There were enough tense moments to hold my attention. However, you began to wonder just how many times Shaun would think of an idea only to have a crook come up with another idea. Like playing tic-tac-toe. Somewhere there has to be an end. If Grandpa just hadn’t kept so much money in the house….



Copyright 2018 Marie Asner