by Mighty Amy
Note: The title for Overboard in spanish speaking countries translates to “A Sea
of Trouble.”
My interest in Overboard was re-kindled during a Kurt-Russel-Movie-Knowing Contest that I was having against a co-worker in my company’s North Carolina office. I lost the contest at the point when the guy said “I should get back to work.” That is also a moment when I felt very embarrassed about who I am in society.
Speaking of society, I believe today’s would not tolerate a RomCom whose premise is really the common-law felony of false imprisonment paired with a hearty helping of Stockholm Syndrome. But I could be wrong. We are a society that tolerated the movie Old Dogs.
I wonder if I am the only person ever to rent Overboard from Netflix. If I am not, I believe the other people are grad students studying the mise-en-scène of people falling off ships in contemporary cinema. The course also includes compulsory viewings of The Poseidon Adventure and Speed 2: Cruise Control.
Overboard is a movie about love, and how sometimes the best kind of love is born out of the creepiest kind of deceptions. Like, say, if you are a debutant and you fall overboard on your yacht and a guy that used to work for you exploits your neurological condition by enslaving you under the false pretense that you are his wife and the mother of his numerous children. What the hell, 1986?
I was alive then, but maybe I missed a moment in time when jupiter eclipsed the sun and
Hollywood invited a villainous feudal lord from the middle ages to write and submit a script for a comedic romp. If Overboard were released today it would be one of those weird mid-winter horror movies with Peter Sarsgaard or Ryan Reynolds in it but, might include original
dialogue from the movie like this (spoken by Goldie Hawn’s character Joanna Stayton):
“I don’t belong here, I feel it, don’t you think I feel it.
I can’t do any of these vile things and I wouldn’t WANT to.
Oh, my life is like death.
My children are the spawn of hell, and you’re the devil. Oh God.”
One day, when our earth has been destroyed and the aliens are combing through the detritus of our civilization they will come across the original movie poster for Overboard and one alien will read the poster aloud and say “My goodness, this looks like a fucked up sea of trouble.”
I give it one shark mauled remains of a surf board, which roughly translates to a C-.
Mighty Movie Review (iss.4): Overboard http://bit.ly/bYfpNW
Mighty Movie Review (iss.4): #Overboard http://bit.ly/bYfpNW
These are so great. Each time, they make me really want to see the movies–which most film reviews don’t. Thanks, Amy, for bringing a new sensibility to these classics du cinema.
Man! Overboard was one of my favorite movies growing up, and now you’ve ruined it all for me!
OMG. Don’t you see that the real false imprisonment was when Joanna was imprisoned by her rich ’80’s life? Her mother and Grant were holding her hostage and she didn’t even know it. THAT was the real Stockholm Syndrome. Or in fact, she was holding herself in the prison of believing she had to want material things over real fulfillment (which I totally buy can be a miniature golf course. I love mini golf.). She was in fact FREED by Dean Pruitt and her new found responsibilities. We must WORK and get to Moscow! (Chekhov – 3 Sisters). She found meaning in having responsibility. The kid couldn’t read for goshsakes! And the teachers didn’t know it was poison oak. And you know she won in the end, because fate smiled on her after she learned her lesson, and she got to be a good, happy person, have an awesome, earthy boyfriend AND wear glittery ’80’s dresses only with a better hairstyle. That is also the moral of Maid to Order – which had better be your next review. No need to netflix that one, I own it on VHS (as well as 2 copies of Overboard).
Amy, I heart this movie so much. I actually think about this film quite regularly because my reactions to certain things in Alaska are similar to GH’s during her time of cheerful slavery with Kurt Russell. Things that are pleasing to me about this movie:
1) a shoe rack plays a crucial role
2) the kids just play along without missing a beat. Sure, dad! We’ll act like this crazy lady is our mom! Just as long as someone cleans up our mud fights, who cares.
3) she thinks she was really fat before she got amnesia cause of the clothes KR brings her
4) I actually think the sea maiden (or whatever) monologue is really romantic. No? C’mon? They had such a great moment on the deck of the dive bar!
True, a villainous feudal lord from the middle ages probably wrote this as a fable to embody the idea that women shouldn’t be “fancy” and try to escape a life of drudgery and child-rearing. However, he’s not saying we should be denied true love with our studly oppressors!
A-