Film review of Snatched

This film review of “Snatched” appeared in the Australian Jewish News on 18 May 2017.

Directed by Jonathan Levine; written by Katie Dippold; starring Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, Joan Cusack, Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes and Christopher Meloni

As a mother-daughter adventure caper film, “Snatched” manages to be both terribly old-fashioned and edgily contemporary. With two Jewish stars in the lead – comic Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn as her mother – “Snatched” is worth a look, particularly for groups of women looking for a female-centred action film.  Just keep your expectations low.

“Snatched” comes with a great comic pedigree. Teaming Amy Schumer with Goldie Hawn – one of the best American comic actresses of her generation (“Private Benjamin”, “Shampoo”, “Housesitter”, “First Wives Club”) – is a high-concept casting coup. Co-producer Paul Feig, who has made a career of female-centred action comedies, including the 2016 “Ghostbusters”, “The Heat”, “Bridesmaids” and “Spy”, ensures there is the requisite mix of bawdy humour and action. Add to the mix a good sprinkling of lesser-known but equally adept comics: African-American entertainer Wanda Sykes, character actress Joan Cusack and Jewish comic Ike Barinholtz as Amy’s brother.

Emily (Amy), Linda (Goldie) and Jeffrey (Ike) constitute the Middleton family (dad is long gone). Emily is a late twentysomething drifting through life, Jeffrey suffers from severe agoraphobia and a host of other anxiety disorders, and Linda has taken anxiety to a high art. Fired from her job and recently broken-up with her boyfriend, Emily invites her mother to accompany her on her planned trip to Ecuador. It’s a last resort: no-one else wants to go with her.

The trip seems so idyllic, including Emily’s meeting the dark handsome stranger who takes them on an adventure to the jungle … and leads them to getting kidnapped by a nasty Latin gang (a throwback of stereotyped screen bad guys not out of place in Trump’s America). They escape, get found again, get help from odd characters (including Sykes and a mute Cusack), race through the jungle and some people die. Somehow it all seems good fun, an odd mixture of personal peril that does not quite seem real. They call on Jeffrey for help, he rises to the occasion, and contact the American State Department, which appears only mildly interested in their fate.

This is a film for the “Bridesmaids” fans, although director Jonathan Levine (“The Wackness”) never quite pulls it off. It’s one thing to soil a wedding dress, but quite another for two women to be chained in a jungle hideout; the setting seems not quite as funny, even if the characters are.

The Middletons seem like a wholesome middle American family (get the name joke?), but the strong strains of family anxiety feel like a particularly Jewish characteristic presented by three accomplished Jewish comic actors. It’s too bad the film-makers skipped the opportunity of making the characters Jewish, thereby forgoing a truly rich source of humour. It would not have solved the film’s core challenges, but would have given us lots more to laugh about.