Snatched
2 stars
Director: Jonathan Levine
Stars: Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, Kim Caramele
Duration: 90 mins
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd
It was a match made in comedy heaven – Goldie Hawn, Oscar-winning veteran of such sublime comedies as Private Benjamin, Overboard, The First Wives Club and more; and Amy Schumer, comedy doyenne of the present, realising her dream of working with her heroine.
Here they play Linda and Emily Middleton, a mother and daughter in a dysfunctional relationship who are thrown together when Emily – brassy, outgoing, impulsive – is unceremoniously dumped by her boyfriend, leaving her with two non-refundable tickets for an exotic holiday. Linda – introverted, overcautious – is the only person she can persuade to go with her.
Once in Ecuador, things unfold in typical holiday comedy manner: grand hotel, mix-up re sleeping arrangements, annoying fellow Americans in the guise of Wanda Sykes’ Ruth and Joan Cusack as an ex-operative who cut her own tongue out to avoid revealing secrets under torture (don’t ask…).
But things look up considerably when Emily meets the handsome James (Tom Bateman); though things really go awry when Linda and Emily are kidnapped… Cue a series of mishaps that offer the mother-daughter myriad adventures in the jungle as they escape their captors, hook up with a mysterious adventurer, get kidnapped again while travelling from one Latin American country to another (in a surprisingly short period of time), all the while being chased by stereotypical baddies led by Morgado (Oscar Jaenada), a smarmy, oily, ponytailed villain straight out of central casting – and then living happily ever after.
Director Jonathan Levine seems to be going through the motions. And it is surprising that writer Katie Dippold, the scribe behind the infinitely funnier The Heat and Ghostbusters, could only cobble together a series of set-pieces that do little to form a coherent narrative and which is rarely, if ever, funny.
Scene after scene fall flat, at times almost embarrassingly so. An exchange about a rape whistle feels out of place. A scene involving the removal of a tapeworm from Emily’s stomach by tortuous means is pointless, not to say gross, while overall, the body count is more suited to an action film than what is ostensibly a comedy.
Moreover, it’s a bit of a let-down to realise, only a few minutes in, that Emily is a rehash of the character Schumer played to such superior comedic yet heart-warming effect in her breakout hit Trainwreck a couple of summers ago – a brash, crass, aimless 30-something woman who needs a drink or five to function properly. Whereas in that film hers was a well-rendered, three-dimensional character whose flaws were as richly drawn as her strengths, here she is simply a caricature, albeit at times a rather unlikeable one. It is way too early in her film career to be regurgitating the same shtick.
Ironically, it is the scenes back home in the States that work the best. When a heartbroken Emily goes back home to mom, the tension between the two is palpable, and funny.
The appearance of Emily’s brother Jeffrey (Ike Barinholtz), an agoraphobic who has never left the house, and who has the penchant of calling his mother ‘Ma-Mah’, brightens up proceedings somewhat. This is so both initially, as he and his sister are reduced to squabbling teens at the mere sight of one another, and later, when he realises his family is in danger and he has to deal with the mother (or should that be father) of all bureaucrats at the State Department in the guise of Agent Morgan Morgan (Bashir Salahuddin), who offers some of the most enjoyably droll moments throughout.
There is no denying that Hawn and Schumer share remarkable chemistry. Their dysfunctional relationship is believable, their exchanges snappy, and they both have palpable screen presence. Yet sadly, it is not enough to make up for the movie’s considerable shortcomings.
This is a shame, not only for the missed opportunities but for the fact that Snatched marks Hawn’s return to the silver screen after a 14-year hiatus. She certainly deserved better.