Review: 'Snatched' is an Insult to Mothers Everywhere
Jacqueline Gualtieri ’17/ Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Snatched tried rewrite the way audiences look at the mother-daughter comedy. It tried to change the idea of the damsels in distress. It tried to change how we view “women’s movies.” It tried to be a lot of things, and yet it failed at pretty much everything. Amy Schumer broke down barriers and created a different type of romantic comedy with 2015’s Trainwreck, but anyone who goes to see Snatched will understand that this movie is the real trainwreck.
When we meet Emily (Amy Schumer), she’s a mess, just fired from her job and recently dumped, left with two nonrefundable tickets to Ecuador. After finding out that none of her friends want to travel with her, she finally convinces her mother to accompany. While there, she falls head over heels for a guy who ends up kidnapping the pair, forcing them to work together in order to escape.
All in all, Schumer pretty much plays the exact same character as she did in Trainwreck, facing the exact same moral dilemma. She’s selfish, vulgar, and doesn’t have her life together. The film details her efforts to learn selflessness and stand on her own two feet. It’s disappointing to see that Schumer isn’t developing much of a range on the big screen, but perhaps the writing is partially to blame. Schumer was written into the role and given not much comedy to work with.
Snatched was originally written by Kate Dippold whereas Trainwreck was written by Schumer. The disconnect between the engaging story of Schumer’s first film and the constant fart jokes of Snatched is stark.
Speaking of stereotypes, let’s talk about those the entire movie is based off of. After going to Ecuador, the audience see very few people who are from South America, none of which have speaking parts, until the kidnapping. After that, nearly every other person on screen is South American and every single one of them plays a villain, or a coward who is afraid of the villains and refuses to help the women. Perhaps director Jonathan Levine and writer Dippold should have found a way to fight against these stereotypes, rather than play right into them.
The only saving grace of Snatched is it’s minor characters. Jeffrey (Ike Barinholtz) is Emily’s agoraphobic brother, who has to try to overcome his illness to save his family. He’s pretty funny, although it reaches the point that he’s very overused for laughs. Morgan Russell (Bashir Salahuddin) is the less than helpful agent who Jeffrey harasses to try to get him to find his mom and sister. Many of the funniest scenes in the film are between Morgan and Jeffrey. But the real heroes of the story are Ruth (Wanda Sykes) and Barb (Joan Cusack), two women who are at the same resort as Emily and Linda. Ruth and Barb are “platonic” friends who go on vacation together every year. Ruth acts as Barb’s voice, as Barb cut out her tongue to prevent herself from talking about what she saw when she worked in special ops. Although Barb is silent throughout the entire movie, the moments with her are hands down the best in the film. Cusack is such a talented actress that she doesn’t need dialogue. Everything she’s thinking is always perfectly displayed in her actions and expressions. Sykes and Cusack play off each other with ease. It’s a shame that the pair didn’t have more screen time.
Overall Grade: D
Watch The Trailer: [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsBWnst8f7w[/embedyt]