We may be feeling winter chills but that’s not stopping Hollywood from prepping their roster for spring features. The first trailer has dropped for Overboard, the upcoming remake starring Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez and Anna Faris.
A remake of Garry Marshall’s 1987 beloved comedy, the film follows a struggling woman named Kate (Faris) who crosses a wealthy Latino playboy named Leonardo (Derbez). When Leonardo falls off his luxury yacht and gets amnesia, Kate sees it as an opportunity for revenge, telling Leonardo she’s his wife. She takes him to her home, where she’s set to be evicted, tells him he’s sterile (yet has two new daughters) and forces him to work in various labor jobs.
Remaking Overboard was always going to require a new angle considering the misogynistic overtones of the film’s male lead, then played by Kurt Russell, tricking a wealthy woman (played by Goldie Hawn) into being his wife. The original comedy saw Hawn belittled and humiliated as payback for her classist insults against Russell’s character. When the remake was originally announced, with a gender reversal, it seemed like an opportunity to showcase a different feeling.
However, this new interpretation directed by first-time film director Rob Greenberg, still feels like it misses the point. Derbez’s Leonardo is wealthy and seemingly successful, yet he’s left at the mercy of a white woman who forces him into stereotypical Latino jobs like construction. Mexican-American actress Eva Longoria is in the cast playing a friend of Faris, but she only sees the benefits of Leonardo as a “fake husband;” it’s unclear how she feels about the racial power dynamic. Will it be a reductive presentation of misconceptions about Latinos or a funny take down of ethnic and gender stereotypes? We’ll have to wait for the movie’s release to find out.
Derbez himself has been a proponent of breaking down stereotypes with humor, best seen in his previous films Instructions Not Included and How to Be a Latin Lover. The latter itself climbed all the way to number two at the U.S. box office last May, so whether Overboard hits the right notes or not, this should put Derbez in front of more audiences.
https://youtu.be/RPertogUzs8
Overboard hits theaters on April 20, 2018.