The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Cheaper by the Dozen
Comedy · Family · Drama · 2003
The Baker brood moves to Chicago after patriarch Tom gets a job coaching football at Northwestern University, forcing his writer wife, Kate, and the couple's 12 children to make a major adjustment. The transition works well until work demands pull the parents away from home, leaving the kids bored -- and increasingly mischievous.
Movie details
Cheaper by the Dozen
“The more...the scarier!”
2003 Comedy · Family · Drama 1h 38m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
5.9 / 10
115.1K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
25 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
46 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
6.3 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
The Baker brood moves to Chicago after patriarch Tom gets a job coaching football at Northwestern University, forcing his writer wife, Kate, and the couple's 12 children to make a major adjustment. The transition works well until work demands pull the parents away from home, leaving the kids bored -- and increasingly mischievous.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Cheaper by the Dozen?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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Cheaper by the Dozen
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A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Shawn Levy
Written by
Sam Harper · Joel Cohen · Alec Sokolow
Steve Martin
Tom Baker
Bonnie Hunt
Kate Baker
Hilary Duff
Lorraine Baker
Tom Welling
Charlie Baker
Piper Perabo
Nora Baker
Kevin G. Schmidt
Henry Baker
Alyson Stoner
Sarah Baker
Court is in session
Put Cheaper by the Dozen on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.