Snatched, the new mother/daughter action comedy starring Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn, is being released into theaters this weekend just in time for the Mother’s Day. The film will undoubtedly do solid numbers in its first days out the gate due to the timing of its release and the popularity of its two stars. Though the broad comedy is played strictly for laughs, there’s little doubt the filmmakers hope to inject a comment on parent/adult child relationships among its outrageous brand of humor. However, for all its good intentions, Snatched offers almost no fresh or revelatory insight into familial territory whatsoever. What it does offer in terms of chemistry and laughs is reason enough to watch it anyways.
In Snatched, Schumer plays Emily, a millennial with a life in which nothing is working. She’s just been fired from her job, she’s got very few friends, and her boyfriend (Randall Park) has just broken up with her right before their non-refundable trip to South America, which Emily has paid for. When she reluctantly runs into the arms of her overly cautious mother Linda (Hawn), she notices how much of a free spirit she once was and what a shut-in she’s become in the years since her divorce. On a whim, Emily decides to take Linda on her trip with her, and she miraculously agrees. However, trouble soon catches up with the two when Linda and Emily find themselves kidnapped and held for ransom.
If there’s one problem with Snatched, it’s that the film is working from no clearly defined or well-tuned script. There are just actors who are given comedic lines and set-ups with which to mask a poorly-constructed story. And it’s a shame, because there are actually moments where the characters sometimes seem to be exploring honest territory, including Linda feeling like she’s an afterthought in her daughter’s life and Emily living her current existence out of fear of turning into Linda. But these moments are only ever glossed over in favor of more and more comedy. What makes all of this even worse is that the minds behind Snatched are responsible for the likes of The Heat, Bridesmaids, 50/50, Warm Bodies, Trainwreck, and Spy. Each of these titles managed to incorporate both interesting plots and hilarious gags with characters who felt like real people. Why the same couldn’t have been done here is a mystery. One theory points to the editing. Watching any one of the trailers for Snatched, it becomes evident how much material has been left on the cutting room floor, so much that there is very little within the trailers which actually made it into the movie! Maybe that’s where they also left the characters and story.
Yet, when Snatched works, it WORKS! This is a truly funny movie with moments which hit because everyone involved with the film knows laughter. The comedy in Snatched comes from traditional set-ups, including a spit take (expertly executed by Hawn) and back and forth banter between various characters, much of which is delightfully off-color. What makes it all even better is that even when a comedic move is foreseen, Snatched breaks the rules and goes in the opposite direction, leading to even more laughter. Case in point, the moment when Emily recruits a pair of former special ops agents (Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack) to help rescue her mother, which sees them all attempt to leap from a balcony onto a van in order to get closer to the room when Linda as being held. As Emily is set to jump and join the other two women, the truck suddenly takes off with them on it, leaving Emily with her leg dangling in mid-air as all three adopt clueless looks on their faces.
It should be said that it’s the chemistry between the two leads which is hands down the other essential ingredient to Snatched’s sense of fun and enjoyment. The film offers both ladies an endless series of set-ups and moments featuring all kinds of laughs, with the majority of them scoring. Hawn and Schumer come from two different schools of comedy. The former is giggly and bubbly, while the latter is bold and unfiltered. Yet the two styles mesh in such a succinct way, creating that specific rhythm which comprises the best kind of comedy movie teams. As far as their characters go, there isn’t much happening in the way of anything which resembles real people, yet the two actresses don’t let this stop them. Hawn proves herself ever the legend, giving Linda a dignity and a bravery that probably wasn’t on the page originally, while through Emily, Schumer proves herself to be an accessible and inviting screen presence who shows once again that she has the ability to carry a film.
The two are greatly supported by some well-established names doing some truly side-splitting work. Although Cusack’s character has no dialogue, she still manages to get laughs, proving how naturally gifted of an actress she is, while Sykes uses her trademark humor and delivery to great effect. Ike Barinholtz steals every one of his scenes and never outstays his welcome as Linda’s geeky, agoraphobic son, and Christopher Meloni as an Indiana Jones-type of adventurer may well be Snatched’s true secret weapon.
Despite a number of intended returns which never came to be, Snatched is Hawn’s comeback film after a 15 year hiatus following the hit 2002 comedy The Banger Sisters. If anyone was doubtful as to whether the star of such comedy classics as Foul Play and Death Becomes Her would be at all rusty after such a lengthy break, they needn’t have worried. One need only listen to that unmistakable laugh or try to sustain composure as those trademark eyes help make a series of laugh-out-loud facial expressions to show that she’s still got it. For many, this will be their first introduction to Hawn on screen, who up until now might have mainly known her as Kate Hudson’s mom. Rest assured, they’re getting the classic Goldie that the rest of us have always known and loved.
