SNATCHED

US, 2017, 90 minutes, Colour.
Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, Ike Barinholtz, Tom Bateman, Christopher Meloni, Wanda Sykes, Joan Cusack.
Directed by Jonathan Levine.

Sometimes amusing and funny time-filler depending on your response to the two stars.

Amy Schumer, mainly seen on television (the series, Inside Amy Schumer) but also in the film, Trainwreck, and her comic style, is something of an acquired taste. She portrays the awkward American woman, not classical beauty with jokes about that, eager to please but also energetically eager to displease. Her often wry comedy has a certain appeal.

In the past, Goldie Hawn was also an acquired taste, but an exceedingly popular acquired taste, from her early films in the 1960s, including an Oscar-winning performance in Cactus Flower (1969) as well as her often calculatedly ditzy presence in Laugh-in. During the 1970s and into the 1980s, she was an extremely popular screen presence. It seems very strange but she has not been on the cinema screen since 2001 in The Banger Sisters. Seeing her again, just the same as she always was except that she is now into her 70s, reminds us that we have missed her absence.

This is one of those broad comedies that seem to be being made up as it goes along, all kinds of sequences that don’t necessarily follow the previous ones, sometimes bizarre, sometimes hilarious, but then on to the next sequence…

Amy Schumer is Emily, bossy in a clothes shop until we realise she is the salesperson not the customer, and then she is fired. At lunch with her boyfriend (and she does enjoy eating), he suddenly informs her that they are breaking up. Goldie Hawn is her mother, Linda, forever phoning her, with more than a touch of claustrophobia with so many locks on the door, rarey going out, but worried about Emily while her son, Jeffrey, (a Game of Thrones, Harry Potter etc ultra-nerd, Ike Barinholtz) lives at home, giving piano lessons.

The trouble is that Emily has bought two tickets, non-refundable, for two to Ecuador and nobody wants to go with her. She tries to persuade her reluctant mother – to put back the “fun� in “non-refundable�. Suddenly they are in Ecuador.

There are the usual jokes about American tourists living in luxury, mingling with the locals, getting all kinds of thrills they would not have at home, especially when British James teams up with Emily and takes her and her mother on an excursion. With the title, Snatched, we are not wrong in guessing that they will soon be abducted.

A lot of the film is about mother-daughter shenanigans in escaping from the abductors, using quite some nous at times, Emily exercising some martial arts skills in knocking out the abductor’s cousin, later rather loose-handed with a spear, getting rid of the abductor’s son. No wonder he keeps pursuing them. They are on their way to Bogota, contacting the embassy and an exasperated official at the other end, especially when they contact Jeffrey and he continually hounds the official who hounds him back. Then there are Ruth and Barb, on holidays, Barb being an ex-special Ops expert (Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack) who do their best but are not as effective as we might have expected. Then there is Roger (Christopher Meloni) an ex-chef with terminal cancer who offers to guide them through the jungle.

Obviously, it all comes together, mother and daughter confronting the abductor, the local troops and American agents all arriving for an arrest (with Jeffrey intimating that he had organised it all).

There are some pleasing scenes where Emily actually stops to help local women in the jungle with their water carrying. She is redeemable – and, in Kuala Lumpur, a year later, there is Linda, just like Goldie Hawn of the past, exuberantly living it up.

Some amusing scenes and lines, for Amy Schumer fans – and the pleasure of seeing Goldie Hawn again.

1. Comedy, the stars, the title?

2. American settings, Latin America, the detail? The musical score?

3. The touches of realism, the unreal comic touches?

4. The mother-daughter film, tensions in the relationship, their going into action together, each being changed by the experience?

5. Linda, fussy mother, her son at home, his being a nerd? The contact with Emily?

6. Introduction to Emily, in the shop, domination, the fact she was the salesperson not the customer? Talking about her holiday? Her boss firing her? The lunch with Michael, his breaking up with her, his reasons? Her pretending that all was well?

7. The mother’s phone calls, going to see her, sad, the meal, Jeffrey and the squabbles? The non-refundable ticket? And reintroducing the fun?

8. Linda, her divorce, the children, locking herself inside, the phone calls and checking, not wanting to go out?

9. Ecuador, the room, the service, the pool, luxury, the jokes, Linda reading?

10. The encounter with James, attractive, dancing, drinking, going to her room and Linda’s disapproval? Going on the trip, enjoyment, her power in her kicking? Going for the drive, the crash and the abduction?

11. In the cell, the abductor, putting the women in the boot of the car, untying themselves, getting out, Emily and her kick, picked up by the truck, the driver’s warning, their escape, the encounter with Roger, as a guide in the jungle, the truth about his being a chef with cancer, to swing over the cliff and his falling down? Emily getting the spear, the death of the abductor’s son?

12. Emily going on the lift, through the jungle, Linda staying? Emily and her work with the local women and the getting the water? The touch of generosity? Her mother’s
admiration?

13. Ruth and Barb, at the resort, Barb cutting out her tongue, Special Ops not confessing and giving information? The phone call to them?

14. Jeffrey, the phone call, the continual phone calls to the official, the arguments, the exasperation of the official? Jeffrey, participating in the rescue? As if he had organised it
all?

15. Emily finding Linda, Ruth and Barb on the roof of the truck and driven away? The confrontation with the abductor, their inability to handle the gun, the arrival of the troops and the arrest?

16. Kuala Lumpur a year later, Emily and her volunteering to help? Linda looking like Goldie Hawn of the past and enjoying herself