DON’T MESS WITH THIS MOTHER
Union takes on bloodthirsty robbers in ‘Breaking In’
Woman-in-distress thriller “Breaking In” almost immediately goes in for major, major distress. Shaun Edwards (Gabrielle Union) has long been estranged from her father. Now that he's dead, she's driving to Lake Constance, Wis., with teenage daughter Jasmine (Ajiona Alexus) and younger son Glover (Seth Carr).
They are all unhappy having to spend the weekend at his palatial getaway, which resembles not so much a country retreat as some kind of grand manor with fortress-style security systems: bulletproof windows, monitors everywhere and even a drone to buzz through the corridors and up and down the stairs.
No sooner do they arrive than the kids are tied up as Shaun manages to escape from the house and run into the surrounding woods, pursued by, it turns out, one of a gang of four.
These murderous ex-cons have come to find a safe that holds an illegally stashed $4 million in cash. The family's arrival was unexpected and now they are expendable.
But this crew's arrogant leader (Billy Burke, rprising a similar piece of sludge from TNT's “Major Crimes”) underestimates Shaun, who has guts and an innate understanding of tactical gamesmanship.
Director James McTeigue (“V for Vendetta,” “Ninja Assassin”) begins with a very low-key vibe with a measured calm that is suddenly shattered by shockingly explicit violence.
As Shaun engages in her Cat vs. Many Mice game to the death, McTeigue serves occasional laughs and ingenious, if often farfetched, plotting.
Burke's crew — recruited from prison — includes blond, sensitive, gay Sam (Levi Meaden), who's freaking out that they are going to be killing kids; Peter (Mark Furze), the safe cracker who's ready to follow orders; and scary as all get-out Duncan (Richard Cabral), a sociopath with one very large hunting knife and an untrammeled desire to rape and kill.
At 88 minutes, “Breaking In” is lean, occasionally (and intentionally) outrageous and always on resourceful Shaun's side.
Union — in what is belatedly her first starring role in a major studio film after 20-odd years in the business — never succumbs to campy theatrics. She's one cool mother doing what she has to do, which is taking care of business and cleaning house.