Released in time for Mother’s Day, Snatched is a slightly bawdy, occasionally gross mother-daughter comedy with a message: Family ties trump temperamental differences. It brings together a likable pair of protagonists with Amy Schumer as Emily and Goldie Hawn as her mother, Linda. The daughter is flighty as a robin while mom worries about leaving the house. They couldn’t be more different. Emily spends the first half of the movie rebuffing her overly protective, can’t-let-go parent, and yet as the going gets rough, they see each other as never before.
The combination of rising star Schumer and ’70s golden girl Hawn is engineered to bring generations together at the box office. Fortunately, the chemistry seems real between two women who look and act like a bickering mother and daughter.
They are thrown together when Emily’s boyfriend ditches her as the unhappy couple is about to embark on a non-refundable vacation in Ecuador. Since she’s a loser, even the prospect of a free trip can’t entice anyone to take his ticket and travel with her. Mom, borderline agoraphobic, doesn’t want to go either. But after Emily discovers a photo album from the ’70s, complete with snapshots from London and a Thin Lizzie ticket stub—she exclaims, “Look how fun you were!”—the ice melts just a bit. They go, mom tut-tutting all the way about getting too much sun and drinking too early in the day.
Things turn drastic when a worldly young adventurer (Tom Bateman) lures Emily and Linda on a trip into the countryside. He’s in league with a gang of kidnappers. Turns out mom was right to warn her daughter about dark, handsome strangers. They are seized, tossed into a cell and held for ransom. Of course, that’s not the story’s end.
Despite the ensuing mayhem, Snatched rides on a string of laugh-out-loud moments involving a perilous escape into the jungle (guided by a map on the backside of a restaurant placemat), an uncaring State Department (“Trust no one. Good luck” they are told via phone) and the threat of falling into a sex trafficking ring (they are assured that traffickers only want young, beautiful women). There’s even a possible first in the annals of movie comedy: a funny bit with a giant tapeworm.
Life lessons: Linda lets go of her neurosis and Emily learns to get past her delusional selfishness. The conclusion is predictable but the journey is sometimes hilarious.
