Joanna (Goldie Hawn) is a very rich and spoilt woman who is on a cruise on her own yacht, traveling with her equally spoilt husband (Edward Herrmann). She wants to have a closet built so she hires carpenter Dean (Kurt Russell). When she is not happy with his work, she doesn’t pay him and pisses him off. However Dean gets his chance at sweet revenge when Joanna has an accident. She has fallen overboard and is suffering from amnesia. She is in the hospital. So Dean goes to visit her, claiming she is her wife. Joanna has nowhere else to go.
However soon after Dean introduces her to the rest of his family (4 really naughty young children), she wishes he never found her. According to Dean, her name is Annie and she is a typical housewife. Anne’s life turns into living hell as the children are on the game with their father and make her chores harder than they already are. But Annie proves that she is tougher than anybody realized. And the hostility starts to turn into something else. She fights for the kids’ behalf and she even stands up to Dean on their behalf. The children start loving a woman around and Dean…well…he starts falling for “Annie”. “Annie” also falls for him. Dean can’t tell her the truth. With her encouragement, he starts a new business and his family seems complete. But surely, Annie’s memory can comeback any second.
This is a classic romantic comedy written by Leslie Dixon and directed by Pretty Woman and Valentine’s Day director Gary Marshall. Goldie Hawn’s mother is played by Katherine Helmond who you might remember from the sitcom Who’s The Boss? (1984-1992) where she played the hip and flirty mother or from the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond where she guest starred as Raymond’s mother-in-law.
I am calling it a classic because well…even the whole amnesia thing might sound overdone, it wasn’t that overdone in 1987. This is a really funny film that gets romantic at the right intervals and what might have come off as sappy is more than compensated by the laugh-out-loud comedy.
Plus, I really have a thing for the fun movies of the 80s and 90s and both Goldie and Kurt have been among my favorite actors and on &off-screen couples. They have been together since 1983. Goldie has made some really entertaining movies including Bird on a Wire with Mel Gibson. Her partner Kurt also starred alongside Mel Gibson in the movie Tequila Sunrise, also starring Michelle Pfeiffer.
The movie is rated 6.3 on IMDB. 7 from me. And yes, I am usually positively biased towards Kurt’s and Goldie’s movies. I grew up watching that stuff.
Also on Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn
Swing Shift starring Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn and Ed Harris
6 Hollywood Couples: Gorgeous, Glamorous and Happy Together feat. Goldie and Kurt