At last, Hollywood delivers a love story we can all relate to: Boy meets girl. Boy gets amnesia. Girl pretends she's married to boy, because reasons.
The premise of Overboard, which has been characterized as everything from a heartwarming rom-com to flat-out gaslighting (sometimes in the same sentence), worked in the 1987 original because of two people: stars Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Their IRL relationship -- which is still going today! -- gave the movie heart it would have otherwise lacked.
Now here we have a new Overboard, for a new generation. Starring Anna Faris and Eugenio Derbez, the story flips the gender roles, turning Faris into the working-class single mom who cons a wealthy amnesiac (Derbez) into believing he's her husband. (Leslie Dixon, the original's writer, has a writing credit on the remake but wasn't involved in its creation.)
Can this idea actually work without a real-life relationship like Hawn and Russell's powering the chemistry between the leads? And even if it does, is the post-#MeToo world really clamoring for a rom-com whose central relationship is founded on an act of deception? Even one that places the female lead in the power role?
The box office will tell the tale when Overboard hits theaters on April 13.
Topics Film
