OVERBOARD

Cert Running time

Allow yourself to drift along with this sunny and smooth-sailing romcom and you’ll not be disappointed with your destination. Anna Faris plays struggling single mother Kate, who convinces Eugenio Derbez’s amnesia-ridden wealthy playboy they’re married.

It’s a gender-flipped remake of the 1987 comedy starring Goldie Hawn as a socialite and Kurt Russell as a working-class single father.

As ever, Faris brings a wealth of charm and comic ability, and works well with Derbez, who is one of the best-known names in Latin American entertainment. He plays the dashing and obnoxious Leonardo who lives on a super-yacht filled with bimbos and butlers, with Scots actor John Hannah cruising along as one of the latter.

Having insulted the hardworking Kate, Leo later falls overboard drunk, and washes ashore with no memory. This allows Kate to convince him they are married, enabling her to focus on her nursing exams while he goes out to work and looks after the housework, as well as her three blonde daughters.

The youngest two are ridiculously cute and the eldest is a suitably stroppy teen. Kate also enjoys an easy rapport with Eva Longoria, as her best friend Theresa.

Although the story flounders early on, it finds its stroke and rhythm once Leonardo’s rehabilitation gets underway. It’s all knowingly preposterous and openly acknowledges its debt to the many appalling but hugely popular daytime Mexican soap operas. And it’s not afraid to makes points about the extra unpaid domestic work women do after a hard day’s work. As a wall is about to be built between Mexico and the US in the real world, the film’s cross-cultural love across the barricades borders on being a provocative political statement.

Although I was never swept away by the predictable romance, and I wasn’t incapacitated by waves of laughter, it’s harmlessly enjoyable, appropriately forgettable and a mild improvement on the original.