OVERBOARD

Anna Faris     Eugenio Derbez     John Hannah     Eva Longoria     Mel Rodriguez

            This movie is overboard with bad jokes and fairy tale fantasies.  It starts out really irritating with Leonardo (Derbez) being the spoiled rich guy with no comprehension of how most people live.  He is hooping it up on his yacht with playmates and booze, and tries to boss around the maid with a vacuum, Kate (Faris), who is just cheeky enough not to take it, but with serious consequences for her, a mother with three children who is aspiring to become a nurse.

            She is furious and exasperated with him, and when he ends up in a compromised situation involving amnesia, her loyal friends Theresa (Longoria) and Bobby (Rodriguez) suggest an elaborate plan to get revenge and help herself in the process.  What follows is an extended charade involving the whole town where they live.  For those who remember, there was a 1987 film with the same name starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, but in this case, the spoiled one is a male rather than a female.

            This is another one of those senseless remakes of a movie that wasn’t very good in the first place, according to the lackluster reviews (in truth, I did not see it).  This version has the co-star over-acting in the beginning at a hectic pace.  He is much better later on when he tones down (and so is the story), and Anna Faris is good throughout, along with the supporting cast.  With the two main characters, Longoria and Rodriguez and the young actors playing the daughters form a perfect ensemble, with just the right balance of emotionality and plausibility, while still being funny at just the right times.

            Writer Leslie Dixon and writer-directors Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg seem to have assumed that humor hasn’t changed much since the 1980’s.  And while there was laughter in the screening I viewed, it was slow in coming, and I seriously doubt it is representative of what a larger contemporary audience will appreciate.  It is predictable and retreads well-worn jokes about slipping on a banana peel (um…spaghetti sauce), fooling a narcissistic male, and a pansy having to work hard at physical labor.  Another retro aspect is the miraculous transformation (fairy tale) of one character, unadulterated happiness brought about by family and children, and the portrayal of a successful businesswoman as an overly ambitious, disloyal b----. 

            As I watched this film, I was stunned that such outmoded concepts could still be filmed for the mainstream.  It doesn’t match the cleverness of recent comedic films about redemption, like Baby Driverand The Dressmakerand, actually, a host of movies through the years.

You’re not likely to go overboard in your praise of Overboard.

Grade:  D                          By Donna R. Copeland