Is Fatherhood a True Story? Is Netflix's Fatherhood Based on Real Life?
Netflixs Fatherhood tells the touching story of a young widower and his newborn daughter after the sudden death of his wife. The film is a heartfelt drama that follows the inexperienced and grieving new father as he attempts to piece his life together whilst constantly fearing that he might not be good enough to be his daughters only parent. The splashes of comedy that appear in the otherwise somber tale make the movie feel natural and realistic, and the characters feel steeped in the experiences of real people. Lets find out. Yes, Fatherhood is based on a true story. The movie is based on the 2011 book Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love by Matthew Logelin, which was inspired by the death of his wife shortly after the birth of their first daughter. Logelin refers to the book as his Taj Mahal  a monument to his love for his wife. The couple had, in the past, visited the monument in India, wherein Elizabeth (Liz) had said to Matt that he would never do something that special for her. The memory sparked inspiration within the grieving husband to pen his memoir, which was also partly supported by his blog. Matts blog was initially a space for him to share his and Lizs travel stories and pictures but became a place where he could record and share his grief and experiences as a single parent after his wifes death. It gained widespread popularity on the internet, receiving as many as 40,000 hits a day, and through it, Matt received an outpour of help, advice, and encouragement from all over the country. In 2009, Matt quit his job and briefly moved to India with his daughter, where he started writing his memoir, which went on to reach #24 on the New York Times Best Seller List. Many aspects of the films plot closely reflect the authors story, so much so that the name of Kevin Harts protagonist in the movie is also Matt, who loses his wife, Liz, to a pulmonary embolism, which is also what caused the real Elizabeths untimely death. The fact that Matts family lives in Minnesota and that his daughter was born prematurely via an emergency cesarean section are also details that have been carried over to the movie. Director and co-writer of the film Paul Weitz, having read lead actor Kevin Harts memoir I Cant Make This Up: Life Lessons, used insight gleaned from there to mold his characters role for the film. The character Matt, much like the actor essaying him, has to deal with a lot of issues stemming from his own childhood as well, essentially blending the real-life stories of Matt and Kevin Hart into the latters character in Fatherhood. Hart has also confirmed that he used a lot of his personal experiences to inspire him for the role. Despite not being an exact translation of the facts, Fatherhood closely depicts the extraordinary circumstances that Matt found himself in after the death of his wife in 2008. The film also takes inspiration from the lead actors childhood and his previously-strained relationship with his father to make a film that, in the end, is not just based on one true story but takes inspiration from two! Read More: Best Father-Daughter Movies of All Time