Romancing the Stone

Though she can spin wild tales of passionate romance, novelist Joan Wilder has no life of her own. Then one day adventure comes her way in the form of a mysterious package. It turns out that the parcel is the ransom she'll need to free her abducted sister, so Joan flies to South America to hand it over. But she gets on the wrong bus and winds up hopelessly stranded in the jungle.

Critics mostly enjoyed this Raiders-era adventure romp, praising its sharp script, sure-footed direction, and the chemistry between its leads — but detractors found the plot an incoherent muddle and the romantic pairing unconvincing. The central disagreement is whether the film's good humor is enough to paper over its structural problems, or whether the MacGuffin, Joan's character arc, and the romance all collapse under scrutiny.