I was never aware that Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell made another movie other than Overboard so when I heard about this and heard it was directed by the late Jonathan Demme who won an Oscar for directing the masterpiece The Silence of the Lambs, this was a definite must see for me and I had high expectations. Maybe mine were too high. This is only a decent, watchable film at best with a lot of missed opportunities at worst. Hawn and Rusell's performances are just fine and they do a good job with their roles, it was also nice to see a young Ed Harris as Hawn's husband in a typical excellent performance, but the performances regrettably are not enough to make up for the shortcomings in the script. The movie seems uncertain if it wants to be a comedy or drama for a while and the ending basically is a poorly done character study to emphasize how World War II had a tragic affect on so many. That character study would work well for Demme seven years later when he attempted to enter the minds of demented, disturbed serial killers in The Silence of the Lambs, but for a movie that focuses more on the cute side of romance amidst a World War II setting, at the end the payoff is pretty weak. Additionally this movie doesn't know who it wants to root for or if the ending should be happy or not. I think the movie would have worked far better if it had focused on Hawn and Harris' marriage, shown Harris actually in combat and then try to give a message at the end about the horrors of war, and parallel that to Hawn's swing shift work at the factory and have Russell be a smaller character. That would have been a really effective movie. But instead this movie is never clear who it wants its protagonist to be or how it wants its viewing audience to feel about it. Also why was Christi Lahti nominated for an Oscar for her performance here? Her character really has no backstory or personality, and is very generic. If anyone should have been nominated it should have been Harris for Best Supporting Actor. Also the great character actor Fred Ward is sorely underused here and more scenes with him would have made a much better film, same for Demme regular Charles Napier who has very little to do. The performances are good, but Demme should have had clearer focus on his characters and focus on what would have made a stronger story. While not a bad film, it is easy to see why when Hawn and Russell's names are mentioned Overboard comes up before this somewhat redeeming but mostly forgettable flick that needed a better script and clearer direction.

WWII star-vehicle for Goldie Hawn, here cast as a Rosie the Riveter-type who goes to work in an airplane-parts factory after her husband reports for duty. Poor beginning and hastily-filmed conclusion redeemed somewhat by bright moments in the middle. Hawn seems to realize she's being upstaged by Christine Lahti (as a "tramp" who lives in the same housing complex) and the final moments flip-flop trying to restructure the film's focus in Goldie's favor (check out that final shot). There's nothing wrong with that--Goldie's a wonderful presence and she's very appealing in parts of the movie--but her character as written just isn't all that interesting. As the men vying for Hawn's affections, Kurt Russell and Ed Harris are handsome and serviceable. As for Lahti, she indeed shines, obviously relishing the chance to play against type. I just wish the interaction between Lahti and Hawn had been explored with more depth, but it isn't. This is the fault of the screenwriter (the non-existent "Rob Morton", who is really Bo Goldman, Ron Nyswaner, and Nancy Dowd, here doing a WWII variation on "Coming Home", which Dowd also had a hand in) and also Goldie Hawn, who reportedly fought with director Jonathan Demme over control of the piece. They are all to blame for the slim box-office receipts "Swing Shift" struggled to bring in. **1/2 from ****

It's 1941 Santa Monica. Kay Walsh (Goldie Hawn) is happily married. Her fisherman husband Jack (Ed Harris) enlists after Pearl Harbor. Kay gets a job at the aircraft plant despite Jack's objections. Their lounge singer neighbor Hazel (Christine Lahti) is tired of her manager Archibald 'Biscuits' Touie (Fred Ward) and doesn't like the Walshes either who often snicker at her. Eventually, the two women become best of friends at the sexist plant on the swing shift from four to midnight. Kay starts to fall for her supervisor trumpet player Mike 'Lucky' Lockhart (Kurt Russell).

He's a player hound-dogging a married woman. She doesn't come off that well either. There has to be a higher degree of douchness from Jack to excuse her cheating on him. He is a male chauvinist but not necessarily worst than everybody else including Lucky. As a rom-com, it's very awkward. I really couldn't take the bad romance. For this to work, this has to be a darker drama. All the lightness has to go. Goldie Hawn is the wrong person to go there. There is a wrong tone to the movie. I don't know which version I saw although I suspect it's not the director's cut.