It is hard to believe that national treasure Goldie Hawn has not appeared in a film in 15 years, since 2002’s The Banger Sisters. That is remedied with her headlining role in the Amy Schumer comedic vehicle and follow-up to her smash hit Trainwreck. Snatched features the two comediennes as mother-daughter and although the script is too lazy to match the brilliance of this pair with dynamic comedic chemistry, there is still a lot of laugh out loud moments to be had.
Emily (Schumer) is a Manhattanite who it is made clear is not the most motivated soul in the go-get-‘em city. But, she adores her boyfriend Michael (Randall Park) and is beyond excited for the pair’s upcoming getaway to Ecuador. In the opening moments of the film, Michael breaks up with our lovable, but misguided, soul and she is left to wallow in her unemployment, empty future and non-refundable vacation.
After ignoring her mother Linda (Hawn) for days, she heads home for a little mommy love (and hilarious repartee with her brother Jeffrey (scene stealer Ike Barinholtz) and hatches a brilliant idea. The lives-too-cautiously matriarch needs to do something spontaneous and join her daughter in a paradise laden adventure of a lifetime, so she believes. Reluctantly, mom agrees (mostly because she cannot believe her daughter would be so reckless to purchase non-refundable tickets… oh, the horror!). The pair are off and our movie, albeit shakily, commences.
Their first day in South America is supposed to tell us all we need to know about these two and why we should be invested in what happens over the next 90 minutes. Mom is reserved, content to read her romance novels and stay close to the hotel. Daughter is more daring and seeks out drunken adventure with a dashing foreigner she meets at a bar. Awkwardly inserted are two fellow American vacationers, Wanda Sykes’ Ruth and her “platonic” partner Barb (Joan Cusack). The why these people are even connected is never fully established, but you just know that these two are going to play a pivotal role later in the picture. Heck, Ruth even tells our mother-daughter that one in four tourists in Ecuador winds up kidnapped. There’s foreshadowing and there’s whatever that line was supposed to accomplish.
Sure enough, the next day mom and daughter are being shown the local sights by Emily’s new boy-toy and bam! They’re kidnapped. Not only are they taken, but they are taken by one of the southern hemisphere’s most dangerous and wanted kingpins. They break free. They get caught again. Mom and daughter discover things about each other they never knew and Linda loosens up and Emily discovers that she doesn’t have to chronicle everything on her social media accounts and be so self involved. The latter is achieved in the most head-shaking of ways… she sees local women in an assembly line carrying water for their village and decides to jump in and do her part by pouring water into a well. That’s it! Life is changed!
Are we supposed to believe that a lifetime of self centric nature can be wholeheartedly wiped away by the most simplistic of acts? Also, is it considered believable that a woman who lives in the quiet suburbs, yet still has a half dozen locks on her front door, would suddenly find herself letting it all hang out in the middle of running from a kidnapping? Would it not realistically be the opposite?
Snatched does have two things going for it, well make that five. There is something comically charming about Schumer and Hawn. The pair makes it work, despite having a script by Katie Dippold that invests so little in enriching our characters and what they go through. It is an utter delight to witness Hawn on the big screen and let’s hope that her cinematic drought is over after this flick. Schumer is fine, although after the breakout success of Trainwreck, this film is a bit of a let down for her. Much of her spiel is predictable, but still elicits laughs, don’t get us wrong.
The other three elements that raise the Snatched bar are Sykes, Cusack and Barinholtz. In fact, Cusack — without saying a word — elicits multiple LOL moments that reminds us what a terrific comedic actress she is and the same could be said for her onscreen partner in crime, the always reliable Sykes. Barinholtz (Neighbors) continues his streak of grabbing attention from his film’s leads that shows no signs of slowing down.
Director Jonathan Levine (the man behind the incredible Warm Bodies) elevates the material as best he can through letting his fab five performers do their thing. We suspect much of what produced those loud laughable moments were improvised by them.
In this day and age when there is so much competing for the entertainment dollar of the masses, nothing gets our goat more than a lazy screenplay. With a low concept comedy such as Snatched, with a little bit of work, these multiple eye-rolling lines, seen-it-before plot devices could so easily have been avoided and a cast up for delivering a stand-out summer comedy could have had more to chew on. Instead, they do what they can and that is enough. I guess.
Grade: C+