Movie Review - Snatched (2017)

Katie Dippold wrote The Heat (2013), the action comedy about two female cops. It was very successful, so it seems Dippold has decided to run with that template again. Instead of two women who have never met and who are from different backgrounds, Dippold is telling the story of a daughter and mother who come from the same background. The two go on a trip and get into danger. In that regard, this movie is also in line with Tammy (2014).

Amy Schumer starred in her first feature Trainwreck two years ago. It wasn't the best movie ever but it was far better than this, and that might be because Schumer wrote Trainwreck. Schumer is better at crafting story and certainly comedy than Dippold. It's not that Dippold's script is bad. It's just obvious, lacking in wit or keen observation.

That being said, Dippold's script could have worked wonders with a different actress at the helm. Schumer is a good comedian, but she's probably not the best actress. Although the script requires little more than Schumer to be an airhead, immature and insecure, which she can do, but only in a manner that would work on her sketch comedy series Inside Amy Schumer. I'm not quite sure she has nuanced capability to flesh it out beyond that.

Goldie Hawn (The First Wives Club and The Banger Sisters) co-stars as Linda Middleton, the mother to Schumer's character Emily. Thankfully, Hawn is a good actress and does have the nuanced capability to handle certain, complicated, emotional states. Her character isn't written to be as hysterical or swinging from one emotional vine to another. Linda is calm and very rational. Arguably, she's underwritten, as her character is supposed to be this somewhat agoraphobic person who becomes one that embraces the outdoors. It's unfortunate that the script doesn't provide enough to make that journey connect.

Emily shows Linda pictures of when Linda was younger and had fun and took more adventures. Emily wants her mom to be that outgoing person again because as of now, Linda is practically a shut-in, but eventually Emily learns that it's not as if she lost that side of herself, Linda simply chose to become something else, a mother, and that's not a bad thing. Emily is told that, but the movie doesn't build it. It's a piece of information that is simply dropped onto the audience with little impact.

Ike Barinholtz (MADtv and The Mindy Project) plays Emily's brother, Jeffrey, a mama's boy and more obviously suffering from agoraphobia. He's a funny guy for sure, but cutting back-and-forth to him felt like a distraction. I would have preferred to have spent more time getting to know Ruth, played by Wanda Sykes, and Barb, played by Joan Cusack. Ruth and Barb are a couple on holiday in Ecuador and more into their personal lives would have been appreciated. It's not often that a middle-age, lesbian couple is depicted in a major, Hollywood film.

Rated R for crude sexual content, brief nudity and language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 30 mins.