Released in 1987, "Overboard" depends very heavily on reliable performers to carry the film and the casting choices couldn't have come at a better price with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell taking the leads in a movie that potential of being quite a forgettable relic.The duo manages to take a banal script and made it at least watchable by making us care for the characters and playing it like it meant something genuine. The script had potential to shine but it tanked and should have been memorable, but inevitably it got lost in the crowd.
Trapped in the town of Elk Cove Oregon, Joanna Stayton (Hawn) is hanging around while her all exquisite yacht was in need of repairs.She hires a studly handyman named Dean Profitt (Russell) to make a new cabinet for her shoe collection. Due to her status as upper-class rich lady, she takes the pleasures to chastise, judge and douse her snobby ways to everyone she sees below her status.Dean is none too pleased with her misbehaviour and her bullying ways manifests towards him. When she gets pushed off the yacht, she winds up in the hospital without a clue as to who she is and this opens up the opportunity for Dean to get revenge on this pampered snob. He lies to the hospital staff and tells them she's his wife and that she's the mother of his four hyperactive sons. Joanna has now entered into a world she has never been to before she now lives in squalor and responsibility while Dean keeps the scheme in tact while he ventures to seek employment.
Although light in its delivery under the direction of Garry Marshall, the film itself lacks in the comedy it's promised and a very lopsided script under the penmanship of Leslie Dixon. "Overboard" had the tools for a potential battle of the classes with a bit of an amnesia angle thrown to make things interesting, but the amnesia story is demoted to just an afterthought and really nothing comes in the way Joanna adapting to a lifestyle that's alien to her. No conflicts, repercussions about her memory loss.
The movie's focal settings has Joanna going from a socialite to a domestic mother to four incorrigible brats.The house is condemned and surely had seen better days but Dean does not seem to dismiss. Joanna now is faced with an environment that she has never been through before, she is trapped in this lie that she can't escape from as concocted evidence comes in the form of photos of herself with Dean while stressing the fact that she has been in sexual relationship with a man she would never consider getting in bed with.
The film emphatically garners to the mortified facial reactions of Joanna to the play along schemes of Dean, but Marshall only just goes to the shallow waters of this experimental house arrest while turning a small-town Oregon into making it feel like you're living in Kentucky with characters who act like stereotypical rednecks from consuming beer and barrel dunking games. Sure this film had potential to go anywhere, but Marshall decided stagnate with what it is. Just minor squabbling, contrary differences the cliched slow love dance and from there the shock value changes to a growing romance. The relationship gets better as Joanna has now made a house even the boys have grown fond of and getting some well-needed discipline that's been a long time coming for them.
Hawn and Russell seem to have great chemistry with each other even though their characters and among others are very cliched, they can still convey expressions like we would expect them to be knowing the situations they're facing. Russell embodies the right levels of anxiety and drive as he nervously tries everything in his power to make Joanna/Annie as his wife by making it convincing. He turns the best performance here as he uses his machismo to keep Joanna in on this soft revenge.while keeping her on her toes. Her opening scenes as a spoiled snob hit the right chord as the perfect foil for the world she's oblivious and the struggles of adjustment.
And though "Overboard tanked at the box office, it sure got a fan following once it was frequently seen on cable television. This is largely due to the meagre charm it brings while the vague acts of restoration plays better as TV movie rather than on the big screen. Marshall made television programs with the kind of material that was given to him. It truly had a sitcom atmosphere which enough hooks and angles to keep the air running from there. Putting it on the screen was not the right move here and only Hawn and Russell ensure they'll pull the right cords to keep the film eligible to make it cinematic.
Trapped in the town of Elk Cove Oregon, Joanna Stayton (Hawn) is hanging around while her all exquisite yacht was in need of repairs.She hires a studly handyman named Dean Profitt (Russell) to make a new cabinet for her shoe collection. Due to her status as upper-class rich lady, she takes the pleasures to chastise, judge and douse her snobby ways to everyone she sees below her status.Dean is none too pleased with her misbehaviour and her bullying ways manifests towards him. When she gets pushed off the yacht, she winds up in the hospital without a clue as to who she is and this opens up the opportunity for Dean to get revenge on this pampered snob. He lies to the hospital staff and tells them she's his wife and that she's the mother of his four hyperactive sons. Joanna has now entered into a world she has never been to before she now lives in squalor and responsibility while Dean keeps the scheme in tact while he ventures to seek employment.
Although light in its delivery under the direction of Garry Marshall, the film itself lacks in the comedy it's promised and a very lopsided script under the penmanship of Leslie Dixon. "Overboard" had the tools for a potential battle of the classes with a bit of an amnesia angle thrown to make things interesting, but the amnesia story is demoted to just an afterthought and really nothing comes in the way Joanna adapting to a lifestyle that's alien to her. No conflicts, repercussions about her memory loss.
The movie's focal settings has Joanna going from a socialite to a domestic mother to four incorrigible brats.The house is condemned and surely had seen better days but Dean does not seem to dismiss. Joanna now is faced with an environment that she has never been through before, she is trapped in this lie that she can't escape from as concocted evidence comes in the form of photos of herself with Dean while stressing the fact that she has been in sexual relationship with a man she would never consider getting in bed with.
The film emphatically garners to the mortified facial reactions of Joanna to the play along schemes of Dean, but Marshall only just goes to the shallow waters of this experimental house arrest while turning a small-town Oregon into making it feel like you're living in Kentucky with characters who act like stereotypical rednecks from consuming beer and barrel dunking games. Sure this film had potential to go anywhere, but Marshall decided stagnate with what it is. Just minor squabbling, contrary differences the cliched slow love dance and from there the shock value changes to a growing romance. The relationship gets better as Joanna has now made a house even the boys have grown fond of and getting some well-needed discipline that's been a long time coming for them.
Hawn and Russell seem to have great chemistry with each other even though their characters and among others are very cliched, they can still convey expressions like we would expect them to be knowing the situations they're facing. Russell embodies the right levels of anxiety and drive as he nervously tries everything in his power to make Joanna/Annie as his wife by making it convincing. He turns the best performance here as he uses his machismo to keep Joanna in on this soft revenge.while keeping her on her toes. Her opening scenes as a spoiled snob hit the right chord as the perfect foil for the world she's oblivious and the struggles of adjustment.
And though "Overboard tanked at the box office, it sure got a fan following once it was frequently seen on cable television. This is largely due to the meagre charm it brings while the vague acts of restoration plays better as TV movie rather than on the big screen. Marshall made television programs with the kind of material that was given to him. It truly had a sitcom atmosphere which enough hooks and angles to keep the air running from there. Putting it on the screen was not the right move here and only Hawn and Russell ensure they'll pull the right cords to keep the film eligible to make it cinematic.