Overboard is a rousing, energetic, funny, and at times, raunchy story, which features a nice life lesson—the things that make a person rich are not lots of money, but the times shared with others. Leonardo (Eugenio Derbez) is a vastly rich and self-absorbed snob who has never worked a day in his life. He has soft hands to go along with his soft lifestyle. Onboard his yacht, a cleaning woman named Kate (Anna Faris) ticks him off, so he fires her on the spot. He also refuses to give her the pay she is owed and then throws her into the water along with her costly cleaning machine. He sails away, leaving her out of a job and owing thousands of dollars on the ruined cleaning machine. She is one bitter lady.
But her good friend Theresa (Eva Longoria) comes up with what Kate thinks is a brilliant idea. It seems that Leonardo had a fall on his yacht and now has amnesia. Kate manages to falsify documentation, including a marriage license, and shows up at Leo’s room claiming to be his wife. She whisks him away and begins to pay him back for his treatment of her by having him work at a construction job, doing household chores (including the grocery shopping). She pulls it off by telling him this was their agreement as she has to focus on her studies for her upcoming nursing exam and even has him sleeping in the shed instead of the house to make up for his former drinking habits.
Although the story is somewhat predictable (he becomes a father figure to Kate’s three daughters and changes his ways, becoming a hard worker and dedicated father and husband) it is sweet in many ways. He teaches the youngest daughter to ride her bike without training wheels, and he makes the oldest daughter feel good by telling her she is pretty and any boy she would date would be lucky to date her. He watches football with the girls and plays the game with them. They finally have the father figure they have never had before. One funny moment includes Leo using a wheelbarrow and he falls into a trash bin, with the wheelbarrow, when he walks it up on a plank to dump it.
The movie produces some side-splitting moments but it also has some raunchy moments as previously mentioned, including some rear male nudity. We can’t stamp our Dove Seal on it as family approved. Still, the story is a good one from the standpoint of showing how people can change, and sometimes the person you started off with in a bumpy way can actually become very important in your life.
