Cheaper by the Dozen (2003 film)

College football coach Tom Baker has raised twelve children (Nora, Charlie, Lorraine, Henry, Sarah, Jake, Mark, Jessica, Kim, Mike, Kyle, and Nigel) in Midland, Illinois. His wife, Kate, has written their life story in a book, which she hopes to publish. Tom accepts an offer from his friend and colleague Shake McGuire to coach at his alma mater, Northwestern University, in his hometown of Evanston, even though the kids are against it and unwilling to leave their friends. The atmosphere at the Bakers' new house quickly becomes tense, and Charlie and Mark are bullied at their respective schools.

Kate embarks on a national book tour to promote her newly published book. Tom has Nora and her self-absorbed model/actor boyfriend, Hank, help look after the other children. Disliking Hank and realizing that he hates kids, the children trip him into their pool of dirty water and, while he showers, soak his underwear in raw meat. At lunch, the children unleash their dog, Gunner, onto him. Hank and Nora angrily leave, and Tom punishes the younger children by cutting off their allowances.

After a chaotic night, Tom realizes he cannot handle the children on his own. No babysitter is willing to work with a family as large as the Bakers, so Tom brings the Evanston football players to practice in the living room for Saturday night's football game, as the children do their chores. However, the younger children escape and crash a neighbor's birthday party, which they had been forbidden to attend (as Tom had grounded them for fighting in school and not doing their chores). When a frustrated and homesick Charlie is kicked off the football team, he accuses Tom of moving for his own reasons and not for the family. Tom discovers that Hank and Nora sneaked in and slept over against the family's rules, and Hank upsets Nora by saying he does not want children and expects her to feel the same. Kate gets a call from the children about the chaos, and cancels her book tour. Her publisher decides to create an additional promotion by having Oprah Winfrey film the Bakers in their home.

Despite Kate's coaching, the Bakers cannot recreate the loving, strongly bonded family she described in her book. When Mark's frog, Beans, unexpectedly dies, Sarah coldly tells him that nobody cares, causing a heated fight to erupt and Oprah's producers to cancel the filming. Mark runs away from home, and when Hank refuses to help search for him, Nora finally realizes Hank's true, selfish nature. She breaks up with him and joins the search, reminding Tom how she used to run away from home to Chicago, her favorite place in the world. Tom has a hunch that Mark is heading for their old home, and finds him on a train to Midland. Reunited, the Bakers begin to address their issues with each other, and hold a little funeral for Beans. Tom resigns to spend more time with his family, and the Bakers celebrate Christmas together as the chandelier in their living room breaks.

Other compositions used in the movie are "Classical Gas" by Mason Williams and Carl Orff's "O Fortuna", among others.

The film was released on VHS and DVD on April 6, 2004.[12]

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• "Official Website". Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
• Cheaper by the Dozen at IMDb
• Cheaper by the Dozen at AllMovie
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