So OVERBOARD (1987) with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell is one of my favorite movies, but I still wanted to see the new OVERBOARD (2018) and to spend some time analyzing it. (It’s free right now on Amazon Prime). And I enjoyed it in the end, but on its own terms. Since I’m writing a romantic comedy, and since I love watching romantic comedies, I also love discussing and analyzing romantic comedies. And there were some interesting lessons.

Analyzing the New OVERBOARD

Here are some of mythoughts on the new OVERBOARD:

• Still like the set-up of the scam
• Shows how to make an unlikable love interest likable
• Uses double entendre in comic scenes – based on the scene with the male buddies
• Missing the chemistry of the original OVERBOARD

The Comedy Scam

According to John Truby, “the plan is always a scam in comedy.” So that’s the case in OVERBOARD, since Anna Faris’s character decides to pretend that Eugenio Derbez is her husband. This also brings in the “fake dating” romcom trope, which is one of my favorites. Only, OVERBOARD has a clever twist since only one of them is aware that they are “fake” married.

P.S. I highly highly recommend John Truby’s course on Comedy. It is one of the best courses on comedy I have taken so far.

Making an Unlikable Love Interest Likable

I REALLY disliked Eugenio Derbez’s character initially. He was so so awful. He had to be awful so you sympathize with the Anna Faris character taking advantage of him. So I was impressed with the scriptwriting because I started to like him. BUT am I really that easy? He makes lunch for her and I’m like, okay, I guess you’re a good guy. I guess I am really that easy. His amnesia, though, also allowed the audience to give him a fresh start.

My Favorite Scene in OVERBOARD

My favorite scene was actually when Eugenio Derbez was hanging out with the guys and he says: “I don’t think this is my life. I don’t have sex with my wife.”

The other guy says that the last time he had sex with his wife was 9 months before our daughter was born. And our daughter is now 2. (So there you have the set-up, the joke, and then the topper (and now our daughter is 2).) And that nobody thinks that this is their life.

Eugenio says that he feels that he should be the guy owning the pool, not building the pool. And all the guys say that they think that.

So it has the double entendre aspect because you know that this is not Eugenio’s life (and that in his former life, he did have sex all the time and was the guy owning the pool) and that makes that funny. But the conversation also has truth to it (everybody thinks that), which adds to the humor.

Missing the Chemistry of the Original OVERBOARD

I think that from a romantic point of view, it was missing the chemistry of the original OVERBOARD. Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell definitely had more chemistry. Maybe that’s because they have chemistry in real life, but I also think that the OVERBOARD (2018) script had less flirtatious banter between the leads. I’ll have to go watch the original again to see if my theory is correct. 🙂

I remember that I wrote one scene in my draft novel where the male romantic lead was doing the dishes and my writing tutor in my Penguin UK Constructing a Novel Writer’s Academy course found this boring and said I needed to add more sparks. Meanwhile, as someone who hates doing dishes, I thought that the male romantic lead doing the dishes was sexy. Lol.

But she was right and I did add more banter to the scene.

Exactly. Why would anyone want to do the dishes?

Three Take-Aways from Analyzing the New OVERBOARD

• Use a scam in your comedy. Add a twist if you can.
• Make sure there is flirtatious banter between the leads
• Comic scenes that play with double entendres work.

Let’s Talk

Have you seen the 2018 OVERBOARD? Did you like it or hate it? What was your favorite scene? What was your favorite scene in the 1987 OVERBOARD?