Breaking In

Cert: 15A; Now showing “Payback is a mother” goes the tagline for this thriller about a mum taking on a band of nasty house burglars in order to protect her children. Geddit?

Gabrielle Union — one of a few unconvincing turns at the heart of this dire film — plays Shaun Russell whose rich but crooked father has been killed in a hit-and-run incident. She, her teenage daughter and young son venture out to inspect his rural pile ahead of placing it on the market. Awaiting them there, unfortunately, are the very bad guys who bumped off Shaun’s dad and have now come for his well-stocked safe. Led by Billy Burke’s alpha male, they take the youngsters captive, forcing Shaun to negotiate the house’s sophisticated security system and awaken her inner ninja.

Breaking In may do decent business in the US, where the sight of Union in the lead will satisfy those for whom cinema has to serve as a political cipher. But James McTeigue’s film is unlikely to get as warm a reception amongst us cynical Europeans who, while being more or less unconcerned with the skin colour of our protagonists, will be more focused on the idiotic plot and the dearth of inspiration, talent or gumption at work.

This is no Get Out — there is no wry commentary here about the racial inequalities in US society or the subversive ways in which classes are kept in their place. This is a middle-of-theroad slog that should have been directly consigned to late-night TV a few hundred channels down the satellite listings.