Overbroad

I recently saw Overboard (1987) for the first time since it opened. Goldie Hawn had been a movie star for almost 20 years when this romantic comedy came out. She was in her early 40s, a ticklish time for any female star.

The film wasn't respected by the critics and wasn't a hit (though not a total flop). I can understand why. Hawn's rich bitch character, who dominates the first act, seems to be a refugee from a bad 1930s movie, and the plot is absurd. Hawns hires a carpenter (Kurt Russell) and after he fails to meet her mercurial demands, doesn't pay him. She falls off her boat and washes ashore with a case of amnesia. Her husband (Edward Herrmann) is glad to be rid of her, so Russell pretends she's his wife. He then exacts his revenge by having her clean his house and raise his four boys. The punishment is so cruel it's hard to laugh.

What's fascinating about the movie is after starting out with such one-dimensional characters stuck in a fairly unfunny farce, when they finally start to melt, the movie starts to work, at least a bit. (I'm always fascinated by how far you can go with unrealistic gags and still have the audience care about the characters--look how far they go in There's Something About Mary and still keep the central romance going.)

I'm not saying I highly recommend it, but I'd rather watch Overboard than director Garry Marshall's next two films, one a hit, the other a blockbuster--Beaches and Pretty Woman.