Movie Breakdown: Snatched (Noah)

Pre-Screening Stance:

I like Amy Schumer, I really do. And Goldie Hawn? C’mon, is there anyone more likable? That said, this looks/feels a little bit like when Seth Rogan made Guilt Trip with Barbara Streisand after he blew up the world with Knocked Up. And by that, I mean forgettable.

Post-Screening Ramble:

So, even if Snatched was a fantastic movie, I think audiences are going to struggle with the fact that this is a straight comedy about women being kidnapped by grotesque stereotypes of Hispanic kidnappers. Let’s be frank: kidnapping, especially of women in foreign countries is a brutal act that usually involves physical, sexual and emotional violence that often times ends in death. There is, quite literally, nothing funny about it. That said, comedy is supposed to push boundaries to the very edge and if Schumer, director Jonathan Levine and Goldie Hawn had managed to make a film that somehow used this miserable set-up as a vehicle for solid gold laughs, that’d be one thing. They don’t though. Snatched is at worst, a pretty out-of-touch comedy about a mother and daughter (Hawn and Schumer respectably) who get kidnapped while on vacation. At best it’s a mediocre comedy with a few solid lines/scenes from Schumer surrounded by a jungle-like morass of a comedic black hole. The film seems to know it’s not very good, because it flies along with nary a stumble to develop any character outside the most rote of comedic stereotypes (Goldie Hawn is scared of doing stuff, Schumer is, well, Schumer, Ike Barinholtz is an agoraphobic nerd, etc.). It gets where it’s going with the most predictable of moves and then ends neatly wrapped in a boring little bow. And of course, on top of all this, any audience member with even a lick of empathy will have to struggle to watch the film without thinking of the hundreds and hundreds of women who are kidnapped, subjected to torture and then killed each and every year. This is a big misstep for all involved.

One Last Thought:

It sort of feels like Schumer’s on the downward trend right now. I think if she doesn’t develop/star in something great soon, we could see her career come to a short-lived end.