REVIEW: OverboardBy Bri ManzanoMay 7, 2018Why is it called Overboard again? Because he falls overboard once and then almost nothing has anything to do with his boat for the rest of the movie? Okay.

Leonardo (Eungenio Derbez) and Kate (Anna Faris) would normally have no reason to associate with each other. He’s a pompous rich playboy; she’s a struggling nurse-hopeful mother of three. At first, first impressions make… *ahem*... a splash… and not the good kind. But after he falls off his boat and lands in the hospital with retrograde amnesia, Kate takes the opportunity to show Leonardo how the other half lives.

It kind of surprises me that IMDb considers this a comedy. And not in that snide, “It can’t be a comedy because it’s not funny” kind of way, but because it doesn’t even try to be a comedy. It’s got the outlandish atmosphere of a rom-com, but it doesn’t have punchlines or humorously awkward situations. Stuff just kind of happens that doesn’t even try to make you laugh, and you’re just kind of there watching this surreal film.

It can be charming when it needs to be. It is nice to see two people change for the better and fall in love, even if they both perform like they’ve got better things to be doing. But it’s charming in the same way that a Big Mac is charming. You know there’s no real substance there, but you have to admit that it satisfies a need. It’s a guilty pleasure on a day you’re ready to indulge in humanity’s more base pleasures. In the words of the witch from Into the Woods, “You’re not good; you’re not bad; you’re just nice.”

It’s nice. And I mean that with all of the contempt that I can.

Rating: 5/10
Favorite scene: the Speedy Gonzalez reveal.
Least favorite scene: any of the family business subplot.

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