Overboard

This old-fashioned and enjoyable romantic comedy relies on a Hollywood staple that was more or less minted in the 30sthe spoiled heiress who becomes humanized by mingling with the common folkalthough significantly this 80s update feels that it has to give the lady amnesia before she can enjoy getting her hands dirty. Goldie Hawn plays the wealthy shrew in question; Kurt Russell is a carpenter she mistreats, a widower with four sons who eventually gets even by subjecting Hawn to working-class wifely chores after she falls off her yacht and loses her memory. This scenario sounds potentially nasty, and certainly both classes are caricatured. But in fact both Leslie Dixon’s script and TV sitcom specialist Garry Marshall’s direction are basically warm, funny, and lighthearted, and the relaxed amiability of the two leadsas well as Chicagoan Michael Hagerty and Roddy McDowall (who doubles as executive producer)helps to make this good family entertainment. (JR)

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