Overboard is one of those so-bad-it’s-good movies. Though overwhelmingly stupid and hilariously socially backward, its charm is rooted in sturdy performances, a neat house, and a couple of genuinely heartfelt moments. Thanks to those warm surprises and the kinetic chemistry between the “man-child” carpenter Dean Proffitt (Kurt Russell), the amnesiac Joanna Stayton/”Annie Proffitt” (Goldie Hawn), and the former’s four wild children, Garry Marshall’s loose remake of Lina Wertmüller’s ’74 Italian comedy, Swept Away, is wonky enough to splash big.

The film opens with Joanna Mintz Stayton—a rude, snobbish socialite and heir to a large fortune—yachting to the Oregon Coast with her equally prickly husband, Grant Stayton III (Edward Hermann). With Joanna unsatisfied with her mega yacht’s mega-walkable closet (it lacks a shoe rack), Grant hires Dean to make one for her before they depart. Showing up in grubby work boots, grease-styled long hair, and sweat-glistening features from years of hard labor, Joanna is immediately discourteous and condescending, and treats Dean as an untouchable despite his best efforts to ease tensions. After two days of work and nothing but trash-talk from Joanna and her husband as if Dean were a pest, Joanna has the nerve to refuse payment because the rotating shoe rack was made of oak instead of cedar and even throws Dean overboard when he gets angry and tells her straight how awful she’s been. Though both sides are frustrated and believe this to be the end, Joanna herself later falls overboard without anyone on board knowing before getting institutionalized once on shore because she remembers nothing (though her horrid personality remains). Dean, upon seeing her on the news, decides the best way to get her back is to trick her into thinking she’s his wife and his kids’ mom so she can supposedly “work back” what she owes (and convince the kids’ new schoolteacher that they’ll be well-behaved). What follows is weeks of chores, shenanigans, and surprising bonds between Joanna and this supposed family she’s part of, showing everyone in this situation what true (conventional and mildly hostile) happiness can look like.

Make no mistake about Overboard’s shallowness in both humor and social standing. For a flick about a pissed-off, jackass, four-kid father and carpenter kidnapping a rich bitch because she refused to pay him for a job he was hired for and completed, it’s surprising there’s anything heartwarming to grasp; indeed, for most of it, there isn’t. Jokes fall flat; Dean, and most men, often come off as creeps at least, if not sexually aggressive in how they treat Joanna/”Annie” (a security guard and doctor literally high five as they see her butt birthmark and giggle when she gets unconsentually dipped and kissed by her supposed husband); Joanna’s autonomy is stripped for the entire thing, as if being kidnapped and made to work/believe she was another person for more than a month isn’t serious so long as she eventually loves Dean and accepts her forced-upon maternal role; to call the characters two-dimensional would be an insult to cartoons; from the kids’ gifting “Annie” a washing machine for her made-up birthday to all of them making fun of her for not knowing how to use a burner, Overboard screams “America runs on men working/hunting and women washing/raising the kids”—and it’s incredibly funny. Only in the U.S., where kids can shoot guns before they can legally drink, can someone really fantasize about such a feat. Perhaps that’s precisely the point, because when Dean’s four kids enter the picture, nothing but laughs and oddly wholesome family mischief ensues, ensuring this very illegal fantasy reaps meaningful and very big rewards for the Proffitts.

Whether or not director Garry Marshall intended it, Overboard also offers a few mild critiques of class and wage gaps, with its central characters standing at opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum. One maintains a relatively friendly gait, despite living on dimes in the Oregonian grime, with friends in trailer parks, overwhelming workloads, and too little time to actually parent or clean his house (“You’re charming when you want to be,” Joanna remarks at one point, still under his spell). His too-rich, well-traveled co-star, meanwhile, miserably acts as if her ego and status truly separate her from others ‘below’ her; she’s always in a bad mood, and usually because she’s upset over her latest self-invented conundrum. As the film progresses and both of their livelihoods obtain spotlight—from Dean yelling “I’m a good father” after his kids’ new teacher berates him outside his run-down home to Joanna’s struggle to readapt to her overly-endowed family’s well-mannered (childish, spoiled) ways—an intriguing message arises: everyone needs money, but too much can morph you into a socially inept and cruel prune. Overboard is ridiculously cartoonish and a bit sexist, yes, but it still has a solid idea here and there. For Russell/Hawn fans, so-bad-it’s-good comedy lovers, and those looking for shockingly dated American movies, Overboard will probably hit hard in all its stupidly underbaked glory.

Screens in 35 mm Monday, 7/6, 6:30 p.m. @ Somerville Theatre
Double Feature w/ Sommersby
Part of the ongoing double feature repertory series: Kurt & Jodie