A film starring two A-list comediennes should, at the very least, be funny. Snatched fails on this count but also seems to have other ambitions. It wants to impart some thoughts about mother-daughter relationships and the contrasting goals of women of two generations. This frustrating movie was written by a smart woman, Katie Dippold (whose credits include Parks and Recreation, The Heat and the new Ghostbusters) and directed by savvy filmmaker Jonathan Levine (The Wackness, Fifty-Fifty, Warm Bodies). So how did it go so terribly wrong? I can’t begin to guess.
Amy Schumer plays an obnoxious person who’s just been dumped by her boyfriend. With two non-refundable tickets to Ecuador and no friends who are willing to travel with her, the only solution is to invite her mother, who is scared of practically everything.
Sure enough, the two women are taken prisoner and embark on a wild South American adventure. Their exploits bring them into contact with a variety of supposedly funny characters played by such talented people as Wanda Sykes, Joan Cusack, and Christopher Meloni.
But the tone of the film keeps zigzagging. A heartwarming moment is closely followed by a broad gag that doesn’t pay off, over and over again.
Schumer’s character isn’t as raunchy as she is in her standup routines, and as we saw in her own Trainwreck, she has a solid screen presence. As for Goldie Hawn, it’s nice to see her back onscreen even if she only partially resembles her former, familiar self. Like her costar, she deserves better material than this.
