As the man with no name sits in his hospital bed and grumbles about the food and care, it’s more because of distress over his circumstances than anything else. The care might be excellent for all he knows. But he has nothing else to compare it to. In fact, he has nothing to compare anything to. And that’s because he’s lost his memory.
The man only remembers back as far as the day before, when he washed up on a nearby beach with a knot on his head and a bathrobe on his back.
He has no memory of the night before, when he was a bit drunk and fell overboard. He has no memory of his incredible yacht or the champagne that he was guzzling. He has no recollection of the staff at his command or the beautiful model he left waiting in his bed.
He only knows that … he doesn’t know.
When a woman named Kate walks into the room with a sad look on her face, he doesn’t recognize her at all. He can’t recall that she was hired to clean his yacht’s carpets just two days before. Or that they had an argument during which he subsequently pushed her overboard—ruining her cleaning equipment and costing her a great deal of money. Those facts never enter his mind.
All he knows is what she tells him: that she’s his wife. That his name is Leo. And that they’ve got three young daughters at home. Or at least that’s what Kate says he should know. Oh, and the fact that he’s poor. That’s why, Kate says, he’s starting a new construction job soon so that she can cut back on her hours and put more time into studying for her nursing exam.
Leo can’t recall any of this. He doesn’t feel like a dad or a guy who digs ditches. But, of course, it must be true.
Because, why would anyone lie about all that?
Leo’s memory loss and new “family” actually help him become a better person. Part of that self-realization can be attributed to actually working and being responsible for the first time in his entire life—things that Leo grows to enjoy after enduring the initial hardship of it all. But a huge part of Leo’s gradual transformation can also be attributed to the three young girls he tries to be a father to as well.
It’s not easy at first, but a fellow worker suggests that Leo should look at all he has as a husband and father. Leo takes that counsel to heart and redoubles his efforts. He finds an incredible amount of satisfaction and worth in cooking for the girls, going to their soccer matches and caring for their needs. And they, in turn, begin to see Leo as the father they’ve never had. One of the girls tells him, “Sometimes dads leave, you know.” But he assures her that he’s there to stay.
For her part, Kate is a hard-working mom who supports her girls by working three jobs—while trying to educate herself and move on to something better. Kate initiates her deceptive scheme with Leo out of spite at first, but she soon feels a great deal of guilt over her choice.
[Spoiler Warning] Eventually—in spite of the lies that Kate tells (a deceptive backstory that her girls reluctantly supported)—they all come to see that their lives have been enriched by being a family together. And when Leo ultimately regains his memory, he, Kate and the girls all are overwhelmed by the love they’ve cultivated and invested in each other as a family. “My life was richer when I was poor with you,” he tells Kate, “than when I had all the money in the world.”
Leo’s sister crosses herself at a funereal.
Before hitting his head, Leo is a rich playboy who spends a lot of time with young women in skimpy bikinis. He climbs out of bed, nearly naked, after one particularly wild night on his yacht, exposing his tattooed backside. He does so on another occasion as well. He and another woman roll around on his bed in one scene; they’re dressed in nothing but short robes, and she straddles him. Leo also looks for and finds a string of packaged condoms.
After Leo loses his memory, Kate keeps him at bay in terms of physical intimacy, even though they’re supposed to be married. With time, though, the two fall in love. Kate kisses Leo and welcomes him into her bed. (We see their bare shoulders under bedsheets the next morning.) They embrace and kiss, too.
Leo is the centerpiece of repeated physical pratfalls. He dangles from the side of a large yacht, is nearly drowned, tumbles in the midst of his construction work, gets thumped with pans and is splattered with hot food while cooking.
Leo accidentally cuts his hand on a sharp knife, and Kate immediately applies her nursing skills and patches him up.
More than half a dozen s-words. God’s name is misused about 10 times. We hear several uses each of “a–,” “d–n” and “h—,” as well as a couple uses of “crap.”
A video clip during the film’s credits includes bleeped, unidentifiable profanities.
Leo drinks heavily early on, swigging champagne and mixed drinks from morning ’til night on his yacht. We see him tipsy on several occasions. After losing his memory and becoming the “new” Leo, however, he accepts the fact that he’s now a recovering alcoholic. He goes to AA meetings and admirably works to stay sober for his family’s sake.
Kate, however, doesn’t refrain from drinking a beer if she thinks it will slightly torment her “husband.” Other people drink beer, hard liquor and champagne on Leo’s yacht and in a local bar. During a stressful moment, Kate’s friend Theresa offers her “half a Xanax” from her purse.
While studying for her nurse’s exam, Kate listens to tapes that deal with issues related to fecal matter. After Leo loses his memory, Kate essentially uses him as slave labor for a while. That labor includes dog doody duty, which is, of course, played for laughs. In the meantime, Leo’s power-hungry sister fakes his death for her own benefit.
The Spanish speakers among us might watch this pic and say something like, “Es lo que es y sin duda tiene sus defectos.” Or, in English, “It is what it is, and it doubtless has its shortcomings.”
Indeed, this remake of a Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell’s late ’80s comedy of the same name is, in many ways, exactly what you’d expect it to be. It has its shortcomings. It’s a broad and completely unbelievable memory-loss-after-a-tumble-overboard yarn that really didn’t hold much water when it was made the first time. This version flips things around a bit and adds a Latino twist, but it still has its problems—including PG-13 levels of language and boozing, some fleshy sensuality and, well, what amounts to some flinch-worthy kidnapping and abuse.
That said, this version of Overboard carries some life preservers worth mentioning, too. This comedy suggests a man can be transformed by responsibility, hard work and the love of a family. In turn, it showcases a family being totally changed by the hard work, consistency and growing love of a good man.
Those sentiments may seem corny in this day and age, one in which we rarely see anything of the sort lauded on a movie screen. But Eugenio Derbez—playing the proverbial louse who turns over a new leaf—embodies them well and makes us wish for more.
That doesn’t wash away all of this pic’s content issues with the tide, of course. But, “Es lo que es.”
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
