Overboard (1987 film)

Overboard is a 1987 American romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall, written by Leslie Dixon, starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, and produced by Roddy McDowall, who also co-stars. The film's soundtrack was composed by Alan Silvestri. Although it opened to mixed reviews and was a box office disappointment, Overboard has grown into a cult status over the years and has been remade twice. In 2006, it was adapted into the South Korean television series Couple or Trouble, and in 2018 it was remade with Anna Faris and Eugenio Derbez.

Plot
Heiress Joanna Stayton is accustomed to a wealthy life with her husband, Grant Stayton III. While waiting for their yacht to be repaired in the rural hamlet of Elk Cove, Oregon, she hires local carpenter Dean Proffitt to remodel her closet. He puts up with her rude and condescending attitude, and produces quality work, which is dismissed by her because he used oak instead of cedar, despite her not having specifically requested this at the start.

He agrees to redo the closet, if he is paid for the work he has already done. She refuses to pay and they have an argument, during which he notes that she is inventing things to complain about because her life is so pampered and boring. This is overheard by the yacht's crew on the intercom, who applaud him for telling her off. Their argument concludes with her pushing him off the yacht and throwing his tools into the ocean.

That night, as the yacht sails away, Joanna goes on deck to retrieve her wedding ring; she suddenly loses her balance and falls overboard. The next day, a story is aired on the local TV news about her having been picked out of the water by a garbage scow. She is suffering from amnesia, and is taken to the local hospital, where no one can determine her identity. Once Grant discovers that she has fallen overboard, he sails back to retrieve her. After seeing her mental state and her lashing out at hospital employees, he denies knowing her, and returns to the yacht to embark on a spree of parties with younger women.

After seeing her story on the news, Dean, who is a widower living in squalor with four sons, seeks revenge by encouraging Joanna to work off her unpaid bill. Despite pleas from his best friend, Billy, not to follow through on his impulse, he goes to the hospital and tells her that she is Annie, his wife of thirteen years and the mother of his four sons. She reluctantly goes home with him and is appalled by his residence.

Joanna initially has difficulty dealing with Dean's sons and the heavy load of chores, but she soon adapts. As she masters her responsibilities, she learns about the boys' school and family issues, and that Dean is secretly working two jobs to pay bills. She falls in love with him and develops motherly love toward his sons, and starts streamlining the money problems with more efficient budgeting. Joanna also convinces Dean to be a father to his sons rather than simply be their friend, as his sons are doing poorly in school and struggle with literacy, yet he simply brushes these issues aside rather than fix them.

Joanna makes Dean's dream come true by helping him design a miniature golf course. Although he has also fallen in love with her, he does not tell her the truth about her real identity for fear that she will leave. Billy, who created doctored photos of the couple to cement the alibi of their marriage, tells Dean that his family needs Joanna.

Joanna's mother, Edith, learns that Grant abandoned Joanna at the hospital and has been lying to her about her daughter's condition. After Edith threatens Grant-(who is in Los Angeles) that she will hire mercenaries to hunt him down, he reluctantly ends the partying and returns to Elk Cove to retrieve Joanna, whose memory is instantaneously restored upon seeing him. She is shocked and hurt when she realizes that Dean lied and has been using her for months. She returns with Grant to their yacht which is headed for New York.

Joanna now finds her old lifestyle boring and pretentious. She is particularly offended by how rude and haughtily Grant and Edith treat the boat staff. She apologizes to her butler, Andrew, for her spiteful treatment of him over the years. He then helps Joanna to realize how happy she was with Dean and his sons. Joanna commandeers the yacht and turns back towards Elk Cove. The next morning when Grant finds out that Joanna loves Dean and wants to return back to the life she had before regaining her memory, Grant becomes insane and takes charge of the boat; Joanna reveals she doesn't love him anymore, and Grant reveals that he purposely abandoned her and had numerous affairs with other women in her absence. Dean and the boys arrive on a Coast Guard boat with the intention of rescuing Joanna, but they are soon called away due to a sighting of salmon poachers. Dean grabs a life jacket and dives into the water towards the yacht and Joanna does likewise before letting Andrew know to tell her mother that she'll give her a phone call. Grant, now having a mental breakdown, furiously takes aim at her with a bow and arrow, only to be purposely booted overboard into the water by Andrew, who then gives his two weeks notice. After reuniting, Joanna tells Dean that all of the money including the yacht is actually hers, but not Grant's. As the boys eagerly make out their Christmas lists, Dean asks Joanna what he could possibly give her that she doesn't already have. Joanna smiles and replies, "A little girl." The film ends with Dean and Joanna passionately making out while the boat sails off into the sunset.

Cast

 * Goldie Hawn as Joanna Stayton/Annie Proffitt
 * Kurt Russell as Dean Proffitt
 * Edward Herrmann as Grant Stayton III
 * Katherine Helmond as Edith Mintz
 * Roddy McDowall as Andrew
 * Michael G. Hagerty as Billy Pratt
 * Brian Price as Travis Proffitt
 * Jared Rushton as Charlie Proffitt
 * Jamie Wild as Greg Proffitt
 * Jeffrey Wiseman as Joey Proffitt
 * Henry Alan Miller as Dr. Norman Korman
 * Hector Elizondo as Garbage Scow Captain Tenati
 * Sven-Ole Thorsen as Olaf
 * Garry Marshall as Drummer
 * Ray Combs as the cop at the hospital
 * Doris Hess as Principal Adele Burbridge
 * Frank Buxton as Wilbur Budd

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 43% based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 5.05/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Variety praised Hawn's performance, but called the film "an uninspiring, unsophisticated attempt at an updated screwball comedy that is brought down by plodding script and a handful of too broadly drawn characters." Rita Kempley of The Washington Post called it "a deeply banal farce" with "one-dimensional characters, a good long look at her buttocks and lots of pathetic sex jokes." Roger Ebert liked it; while calling it predictable, he wrote: "the things that make it special, however, are the genuine charm, wit and warm energy generated by the entire cast and director Garry Marshall." The Los Angeles Times' review of it read: "The film tries to mix the two 1930s movie comedy strains: screwball romance and populist fable. But there's something nerveless and thin about it. Hawn and Russell are good, but their scenes together have a calculated spontaneity—overcute, obvious."

The film has gone on to be considered a cult classic.

Box office
The film made $1.9 million in its first weekend, $2.9 million in its second (+34%) and $3.9 million in its third (+54%), totaling $26.7 million by the end of its run.

Remakes
A reimagined film of the same name, starring Anna Faris and Eugenio Derbez, was released on May 4, 2018. The main roles are reversed from the 1987 original. Derbez portrays a wealthy man who falls off of his yacht and is found by Faris' character, a single mother who convinces him that he is her husband.

A loose adaptation of Overboard is the 1992 Hindi film Ek Ladka Ek Ladki, directed by Vijay Sadanah and starring Salman Khan and Neelam Kothari.

The 1997 Malayalam film Mayaponman is another loose adaptation.

The 2006 South Korean television show Couple or Trouble, starring Han Ye-seul and Oh Ji-ho and directed by Kim Sang Ho, is also a loose adaptation of the film.