Overboard

There are rare moments when a film doesn’t do anything that it sets out to do. It doesn’t make you laugh nor does it scare you. It doesn’t make you cry nor long for a simpler time. Well, try as it might, the remake of the 1987 cult classic (maybe?) Overboard isn’t one of those films, but it wants to be one so bad that I give a B for effort.

I’ve never seen the original Overboard, directed by the legend Gary Marshall (The Princess Diaries), but from what I’ve read in the reviews (one my favorites you can read here), the remake borrows a lot from the original plot. Even word for word dialogue. The premise is the exact same, though the roles are reversed, and Leslie Dixon (who wrote the original) even gets a writer’s credit for this version.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from a film that is a remake of a film that most people don’t remember. I like Anna Faris, but her filmography isn’t exactly filled with slam dunks. Eugenio Derbez, a legend in his own right, was in 2017 stinker Geostorm and Adam Sandler’s Sandy Wexler. So, while purchasing my ticket, I wondered why I would put myself through something like this, but what director Rob Greenberg has given us is a lighthearted fare built for inattentive repeat viewing.

We follow Kate Sullivan (Anna Faris), a single mom of 3 who is studying to be a nurse while working as a pizza delivery person and a carpet cleaner to pay the bills. Derbez is Leonardo Montenegro who is spoiled and rich and an all-around terrible person enjoying the luxury his family money has granted him.

The film starts out as underwhelming as you would expect, and there aren’t many laughs to be found (unless you think Anna Faris singing about bloody stool is funny). Kate and Leonardo (or Leo as he is called for most of the film) meet while she is trying to clean his carpets from all of the champagne he has spilled on it. Not long after their tense meeting, which ends with Kate being pushed off of the boat, Leo falls off himself and washes up on shore with no memory.

The premise of this film is a little creepy one and sort of icky. Kate takes advantage of Leo’s amnesia and convinces him that they have been married for 15 years. She uses him to make dinner and to clean the house all while making him sleep in the shed outside, because while she’s comfortable enough to lie about his life, she is not comfortable with him sleeping in the same house as her children.

Faris does the best that she can with what little is given to her, but Kate is perhaps the weakest character here. All the charisma in the world and the wide-eyed gaze of someone unsure isn’t enough to make Kate the least bit interesting. The film works best when Derbez is on screen and watching him embrace the life he is being sold is genuinely compelling. Leo never quite works as a spoiled 40-something, but as a dad, he has a warmth that will make you smile even if you’re actively trying not to.

Overboard had no chance of becoming a great rom-com (and it probably didn’t in 1987 either), partly because the attraction between Kate and Leo is so undersold, but mostly because it’s weird. Even as she is supposedly falling in love with him, it remains creepy that he’s even there in the first place. But the film is bright, full of some pretty good side characters, and there are a few good laughs towards the back end of the film. It even features a telenovela element when Leo’s family is on the screen, complete with subtitles (which is a nice touch).

I hope that Hollywood continues remaking films that most of the world doesn’t remember were made in the first place. I don’t want any more remakes of popular films, only films that are on the edge of obscurity. Overboard has made almost six times its budget so that may be a good sign for the future. But if this was all for nothing, we can just throw this film into the ocean…

And then wait for it to wash up on shore so I can watch it over and over again on TBS.

I give it 1 out of 5 trash cans.