USA 2018
Opening June 14, 2018

Directed by: Rob Greenberg
Writing credits: Leslie Dixon and Bob Fisher
Principal actors: Anna Faris, Eva Longoria, Eugenio Derbez

Kate (Anna Faris) is a stressed-out single mother of three girls, who’s working multiple menial jobs while studying to become a nurse. She’s hired to clean the carpets on a yacht owned by a rich Mexican playboy, Leonardo (Eugenio Derbez), and ends up getting into a fight with him. In a petty huff, the child-like Leonardo refuses to pay Kate. When he accidentally falls off the yacht and washes up on the shores of Kate’s Oregon town with amnesia, her best friend Theresa (Eva Longoria) encourages Kate to “claim” Leonardo at the hospital, bring him back to her house under the guise that they’re married, and get revenge on the heir by making him earn money to pay Kate’s bills. She ropes her three daughters and some friends into the charade and off they go!

Far-fetched? You betcha! Sound familiar? Sure does! This is a re-make of the 1987 movie by the same name, which starred Goldie Hawn as a spoiled heiress and Kurt Russell as the poor chump she cheats, who then tricks her into caring for his children when she falls off her yacht.

The re-make has reversed the gender roles and has introduced an interesting new layer in the fact that Leonardo, an incredibly wealthy Mexican who hob-nobs with an international jet-set, becomes part of a community of blue-collar Spanish-speaking American workers who embrace him as one of their own while mocking his inexperience. Leonardo, who’s never lifted a finger in his life, works on a construction crew, learns to cook meals for and take care of Kate and her daughters, and evolves into a decent human being. Overboard is a light-hearted movie with charming and funny moments, but it requires an almost delusional suspension of disbelief to find Leonardo’s transformation anything other than ludicrous. And I found myself wondering, what kind of parent would rope her young, fatherless daughters into going along with this hair-brained scheme, which verges on abject cruelty – both for Leonardo and for the kids. But this is a fluffy romantic comedy with a predictable narrative arc and there’s no room in this movie for questioning any of the character’s actions. If you’re in the mood for some silly summer fun, go along for this ridiculous but amusingly sweet ride. (Diana Perry S.)