Overboard (dir. Rob Greenberg)
There's an unwritten rule in Hollywood about comedies: if you can't think of something original, just don't bother. As a consequence of this, it's become the go-to response from studios to take zany and esoteric hits from previous decades, and "reimagine" them with a 21st century sensibility, a whole bunch of money and two likable and profitable leads. Not much has changed in the case of Rob Greenberg's (Wedding Crasher's scribe) remake of the infamous Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell classic from 1987 then, as although they've spruced up the plot holes somewhat and subverted the gender roles, whats missing is the charismatic charm.
It's doubtless you'll find anyone who would attest to the 1987 cult hit, upon which this film is based, to be a staggering success. Sure, as time went by, it became another perfectly passable high-concept romantic comedy, yet is probably more famous for being a matchmaking scheme for the on-screen Hollywood royalty, What you have in the case of the 2018 interpretation is a much longer, much louder and shockingly, much more problematic incarnation that fails to give credence to it's bizarre genesis.
Borrowing some of the plot points from it's original but tweaking them ever so slightly (as to appease the international markets), the roles are switched. This time, it's the girl, Kate (Ana Faris; Mom, Scary Movie, The House Bunny), a single-mom of three, working two jobs as a pizza-delivery girl and part-time cleaner in the midst of studying to become a nurse. During a routine carpet cleaning job on a yacht, she meets Leonardo (Eugenio Derbez; How to Be a Latin Lover), the heir to a wealthy Mexican-American building conglomerate; after some squabbling about her check, he fires her and throws her and her expensive cleaning equipment off the boat.
Though Leo- who's days of debauch filed partying with supermodels and the like have turned him into an obnoxious so-and-so - will soon feel karmic justice rarely dished out, as luck would have it, that same night, our Lothario goes a-wondering on the deck, only to fall "overboard" himself, and awake with complete amnesia. Kate snaps at the opportunity at getting her own back, with the help of best friend Theresa (Eva Longoria) and her husband Bobby (Mel Rodriguez), by convincing Leo that she's is in fact his wife, and keeps him as her live-in husband, putting him to work construction with Bobby and his Mexican pals- as well as running errands for her around the house. First they show no interest in each other, and Leo can't believe this is his life. Any guesses to what happens next?
But that's not all, as this interpretation includes a subplot orchestrated solely for the international market, interspersing the drama in sub-telenovela fashion, are Leonardo's family back in Mexico City. The patriarch of the family and the company, Vitio (Jesus Ocheao) lies on his death bed, and bequeaths the reigns of the company over to Leo, instead of his doting daughters Genevevive (Angie Larocque) and Magdalena (Cecilia Suárez). So when Leo washes up on the news and has no memory of his life or where he is, Magdalena schemes to convince her father of his death, and take control of the company as she wished since the beginning. Almost all of these exchanges are in their native tongue, with English subtitles for the non-bilingual members of the audience, though these are easily interchangeable, and given the star-power of it's lead Eugenio Derebez in his native country, this plot device only serves to remind you that this comedy has one eye on it's international market and not on artistic integrity.
Whether or not you believe Kate's behavior to be completely inexcusable, well that's up to you to decide. There's a politically incorrect undercurrent to proceedings which couldn't go unnoticed: a white-woman using a Mexican-man as her house trained slave to name but a few. But this is all window dressing to the films main problem, a drastic lack of laugh out loud gags. Though our two leads Faris and Derebez have clearly shown their comedic prowess within the milieu of their back catalogue, jokes feel increasingly uninspiring and before long writers Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher resort to slapstick and churlish stereotypes to keep the drama running.
Crashing in at near-on two hours, "Overboard" is completely innocuous and by no-means unwatchable, but there's a rampant strain of pointlessness about the whole endeavor. It's political correctness is suspect, the writing isn't up to snuff and a limp urgency to the storytelling which made it feel wholly un-pleasurable. Plus, it offers the suggestion that a single mother can't raise three children without the help of a father figure, and that's unforgivable. Those of you who remember the original will enjoy the sly asides to it's predecessor, and one strange Jaws joke which came out of left field, but "Overboard" sinks it's chance of improving on the effervescent charm of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, and is further proof that Hollywood's fascination with "reimagining" lost classics are merely self-serving in the financial sense, and unfortunately far from deliriously entertaining.
Rating 2/5
Comments