| Overboard | |
|---|---|
 "From opulence... to rags... to love." | |
| Directed By | Garry Marshall |
| Written By | Leslie Dixon |
| Cast | Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Edward Herrmann |
| Produced By | Roddy McDowall, Nick Abdo |
| Cinematography By | John A. Alonzo |
| Film Editing By | Sonny Baskin, Dov Hoenig |
| Music By | Alan Silvestri |
| Studio | Star Partners Ltd. |
| Distributed By | MGM |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Release Date | December 16, 1987 |
| Runtime | 112 Minutes |
| Rating | PG |
| Gross | $26,700,000 |
Overview[]
Overboard in a 1987 American produced romantic comedy film starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. It was directed by Garry Marshall and although not particularly popular or critically received when first released, has become a cult classic over the years resulting in a remake, Overboard with the genders/roles reversed being released in 2018.
Rich heiress Joanna Stayton lives a idyllic life of ease and comfort aboard her yacht with her every whim catered to by servants who endure her obnoxious, pretentious, and spoiled behavior. One day however, she stiffs country handyman Dean Proffitt for a little carpentry work and shortly afterwards, falls overboard her yacht and loses her memory.
Proffitt however recognizes her on TV as an unidentified amnesic and decides to take a little petty revenge. She owes him quite a bit of money and it just so happens that he could use a housekeeper and a mother for his four rambunctious kids ... for a few weeks. All he has to do is convince her that she's his plain old country wife.
What could possibly go wrong...
Plot[]
Joanna Stayton is the overly pampered and spoiled incredibly wealthy snob who is accustomed to always getting her way. No matter what or who is standing in her way. She is utterly condescending and rude to whoever she regards as her inferior ... and since that includes anybody not as rich as she is; that's just about everybody. She is particularly spiteful and nasty to the various servants who are forced to cater to her every whim such as the butler Andrew who stoically endures her tirades and rudeness.
She and her just-as-useless husband, Grant are currently stuck in a backwater two-bit town called Elk Cove while waiting for the engine of their yacht to be repaired to her disgust.
Carpenter vs. Snob
Joanna decides to renovate her closet and hires a local handyman, Dean Proffitt to handle it. After hours of meticulous work, an impatient Joanna wants to know what is taking so long. Dean demonstrates his labors but Joanna dismisses his superior craftmanship as she wanted the interiors to be made out of cedar rather than oak. Dean calmly agrees to redo the job but she needs to pay him for the materials and labor that he has already put it, pointing out that she never specified that she wanted cedar. Outraged, Joanna refuses and the pair engage in a huge fight which concludes with her pushing him overboard and then throwing all of his tools after him.
That night, the repaired yacht is sailing away when Joanna goes on deck and loses her balance, falling overboard herself. Joanna's unconscious body is subsequently found by a garbage scow and is pulled aboard by the crew.
Grant immediately turns around to retrieve her when he learns that his wife has been found and was being rushed to the hospital on the local news. However he is taken aback when he sees Joanna throwing a tantrum to the staff and learns that while she has sustained amnesia and has completely lost her personal memories ... her nasty personality is still fully intact. Grant decides to take advantage of this delicious opportunity to abandon his wife and sails off for fun, adventure, and much more welcoming female companionship.
Dean Proffitt meanwhile finds himself with a few problems of his own. Having lost all of his tools, he is effectively out of work as a carpenter and in dire financial straits with paying off all of the bills. He just needs a few months of steady work until his ship comes in; a deal that he and his best friend Billy have been trying to scrape together for the financing of a miniature golf course for Elk Cove. But Dean finds himself with a new problem; his four kids.
A widower for the past several years, Dean has been too busy working to raise his four boys properly without his late wife to take care of them. Their wild and unruly behavior is getting the attention of the authorities who are threatening to take them away as he is proving to be an unfit guardian for them. As he tries to convince his kids to shape up, he happens to notice a news broadcast of a certain rich snob that he remembers all too well. Dean is bemused at her condition as the authorities are struggling and failing to identify her and hope that someone knows who she is. Furthermore when he spots a clip of Grant arriving and leaving without her that he realizes that even her husband can't stand her and has ditched her too.
Welcome to your New Family and Life!
Dean decides to have a little bit of petty revenge and get his money's worth out of her by claiming her as his wife, Annie. She can take care of his home and kids for a few weeks and convinces his kids to play along while a reluctant Billy is recruited to buy a bunch of clothes and female things from the Salvation Army.
By this time, the hospital authorities and staff are desperate to get rid of this sharp tongued harpy of a patient. Even though Dean can't produce any photographs or paperwork on Joanna; he did happen to get a good look at her butt while she was sunning herself on the yacht and describes a specific birthmark in a very unique location which Joanna discovers and reluctantly admits that there might be a good chance that this man might indeed be ... it. This is good enough for the hospital authorities who cheerfully release "Annie" into the arms of her loving husband.
Annie quickly finds herself forced to cook and clean and take care of the four Proffitt kids. She is utterly baffled and confused not to mention completely unskilled in the tasks but as the days progress, she begins to improve. Annie is also confused at why she sleeps on the couch instead of the bed, why none of her clothes fit and are all of wildly different sizes, and why she can't find any pictures of herself with Dean or the kids. She comes to accept Dean's weak stories about the couch is best for her bad back; her pregnancy weight gains and losses behind the multitude of clothes of varying sizes; and how she was very shy and hated having her picture taken.
Cooking Chicken ... Somehow
Nevertheless she tackles things head on and slowly becomes a good housewife. The four boys are taken aback and resentful when she starts disciplining them but they soon come to appreciate her presence. Annie is dismayed when she realizes that the four children are all barely literate which is why they are so rambunctious at school as they are bored and begins tutoring them herself. She is disgusted when Dean brushes off her concerns over them and is always taking off to spend all night bowling and carousing with his friends; accusing him of being more interested of being a buddy to his kids rather than being a good father and taking care of them.
However she become suspicious when she realizes that it would be difficult for Dean to be bowling ... without his bowling ball. Following him, she is shocked to discover that Dean is busy working a menial job at night to help pay the bills and has been lying to pretend that their financial problems aren't as bad as they really are; realizing that he is a much better man and a more caring father than she had first assumed.
She turns her talents to the books and begins figuring out a better budget to help out. Now with more free time on his hands, Dean is busy brainstorming with his best friend, Billy on their miniature golf park idea that they've been working on for months. Dean however is convinced that the golf course desperately needs a theme to make it stand out. Dean and Billy are unfortunately both lousy at coming up with ideas for their attraction when Annie suggests a theme of the wonders of the world such as the Eiffel Tower of Paris or the Taj Mahal of India. Dean is impressed and immediately seizes on the brilliant idea; using the wonders of the world as part of the golf course itself. Annie is a bit surprised at how she somehow remembers the wonders and starts sketching them in detail, accepting Dean's latest story as to how she used to be in the Navy and traveled the world before they got married.
Meanwhile Dean has noticed the changes in Annie and has become increasingly guilty at his lies and how much she's helped him and the boys; he's actually fallen in love with her. However when he brings up his concerns, he finds little support from the kids who adore Annie and have no desire to lose their new mom and even the formerly reluctant Billy who had been the one most against Dean's fake wife idea thinks that Annie is the best thing that's ever happened to him particularly since their latest presentation for the Wonders of the World Golf Course has been eagerly accepted by the investors.
Ultimately Dean attempts to tell her the truth but loses his nerve and instead takes Annie out by claiming its her birthday. Celebrating on the beach, Annie is confused as to why the boats always blast their horns three times before entering the port. Dean explains its a local custom to signal their coming home and according to legend; a lowly fisherman Arturo fell in love with a beautiful girl, Catarina and she with him. But Catarina's father was a powerful and rich man and the governor of the port who did not want his daughter sullying herself by marrying a lowly fisherman.
In the end, he threatened Arturo to leave or else. Arturo did as he was bade but told Catarina that he would come back for her and that he would blow his horn three times to let her know so she could dive into the ocean and swim out to the ship and join him so they could sail away together.
Tragically, Arturo did return and blow his horn three times and Catarina leapt into the ocean but the fog was heavy and she called out to him, lost and unable to find him and his ship. Arturo cried out her name and leapt from the boat to try to find her and they both drowned. But legend says that they were reunited in death.
Dean and Annie kiss and the happy couple make love afterwards for the first time.
But Joanna's disappearance has been noticed by others.
Her mother is confused as to why her daughter has not been in touch with her for months now and icily informs Grant that she will be flying out to the yacht. Grant reluctantly decides that he has no choice but to retrieve his wife and sets sail for Elk Cove and tracks down his wayward wife who is busy helping finalize the Wonders of the World Golf Course.
Seeing Grant triggers Joanna's lost memories and she is shocked to realize that her life as Annie was all a lie. Returning to the yacht, she is reunited with her mother but soon finds her former rich lifestyle to be empty and overly pretentious and finds herself missing Dean and worrying over the kids.
The Proffitt kids are all distraught however and demand their morose and guilt-ridden father go and bring their mother back. He claims that she has her memories, her wealthy to-do husband, and rich pretentious lifestyle back: why would she need him?
Joanna's more down to earth personality is horrifying to her husband and mother who have her spend all of her time with a psychiatrist, Dr. Korman in an effort to restore her snobbish personality. She surprisingly befriends many of the servants and shamefully apologizes for her previous behavior to Andrew who humbly accepts. She suddenly asks Andrew if she's crazy to hate her life as a rich debutante heiress of Joanna Stayton. Andrew informs that she's not crazy and that everybody goes through life knowing what they are and what station they were born to. They find it comfortable and don't even realize that they've spent their entire life with blinders on. Joanna had been given a rare privilege and a gift: to be Annie Proffitt. To have a life she never knew existed or wanted without the blinders. Now, what she does with that gift is entirely up to her.
Unable to stand missing Annie, Dean becomes fed up and angrily departs Elk Cove accompanied by the kids. Billy is able to convince a friend of his in the Harbor Patrol to sail their patrol boat after the yacht.
Resolute, Joanna marches onto the yacht's bridge and demands that the captain turn the boat around and head back to Elk Cove. Grant learns of the situation and confronts Joanna and the pair fight when Grant makes a comment that causes Joanna to realize that he knew where she had been all along and had deliberately left her at the hospital. Joanna is startled when she hears three long horn blasts, recognizing it from Dean's story of Catarina and Arturo and sees the harbor boat approaching and runs onto the deck to meet them.
But the crew of the harbor boat receives a radio message about poachers and starts to turn around. When informed that the harbor patrol has to go back; Dean dives overboard, crying "Catarina!"
Joanna is about to do that same only to be stopped by Andrew who proclaims that he can't let her do that. At least not without a life vest. Suitably attired, Joanna likewise leaps into the water crying "Arturo!" and the pair swim to one another and joyously reunite while the harbor patrol is forced to detour back again to pick up the overboard duo. Furious at being cast aside for a mere handyman, Grant tries to take aim at the couple with a rifle only for Andrew to kick him overboard as well before giving his two weeks notice.
Dean is amazed that Joanna gave up everything to be with him and the kids. Joanna admits that ... she didn't. The yacht is actually hers, not Grant's and so is the money. While the four Proffitt kids are busy revising their Christmas lists aboard the yacht, Dean is troubled. The last gift that he gave her was a washing machine. Just what can he possibly give her that she doesn't already have. Joanna smiles and replies, "A little girl."
Cast[]
- Goldie Hawn as Joanna Stayton / Annie Proffitt
- Kurt Russell as Dean Proffitt
- Edward Herrmann as Grant Stayton
- 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 Captain Tenati
- Sven-Ole Thorsen as Olaf
- Garry Marshall as Drummer
Production[]
Additional/Alternate Movie Taglines[]
- From opulence... to rags... to love.
- She was born to spend. He was born to offend. There's only one way they could fall in love... by accident.
Reception[]
Overboard was released on December 18, 1987 in the United States, premiered alongside Eddie Murphy Raw; Leonard Part 6; and *batteries not included. It debuted in 1,126 theaters nationwide and earned a total gross of $1,880,006 for its opening weekend. It managed to rise to the 7th rank of most popular films, failing to overcome Eddie Murphy Raw as well as displacing several other front running films such as Three Men and a Baby; Throw Momma from the Train; and Wall Street. It dropped to the 8th spot by the next weekend and maintained a steady presence in the ranking of the Top 10 for the next few weeks before finally slipping out in its fifth weekend to the 13th rank. It proceeded to seesaw up and down before it ended after a 7-week box office run in the 12th most popular movie slot.
Overall, it earned a total of $26,713,187 domestically and was not released internationally. The Rotten Tomatoes website gave it a 45% "Rotten" approval rating with Metacritic scored it "53 out of 100" with mixed reviews.
Trivia[]
- Executive Producer Roddy McDowall also appears as Andrew the Butler in the film.