A comedy about couples in counselling,
Couples Retreat's
only real appeal lies with its ensemble cast, who take a stab at making something of a lacklustre script by Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau.
Thirteen years on life has changed
for the boys from
Swingers
; Vaughn and Favreau are no longer making films about struggling actors trying to get a date, but married men trying to save their relationships. It's a simple scenario but the story feels underdone, as if the cast were hoping to turn up in Bora Bora and just improvise their way to a good movie.
Four Midwestern couples decide to take a group holiday to a tropical island resort called Eden. Jason (Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) are contemplating divorce and plan to take part in the marriage counselling course Eden provides. The others, Dave and Ronnie (Vaughn and Malin Akerman), Joey and Lucy (Favreau and Davis), and Shane and Trudy (Faizon Love and Kali Hawk) are planning to relax and enjoy the exotic surroundings.
Once they've arrived, they discover that if you want to enjoy the pleasures of Eden you're obliged to take part in the therapy course. Which they grudgingly do, and suddenly marriages that were fine are under pressure, and relationships that were doomed somehow manage to resurrect themselves.
Though there are a variety of relationships to relate to here, you wouldn't want to be in any of them. There is nothing aspirational about the people or their relationships, which is compounded by director Peter Billingsley letting both the story and his actors ramble on without really saying much at all.
As you'd expect from Vaughn and Favreau, there's plenty of snappy chitchat, and to be fair they do it well, but really all
Couples Retreat
amounts to is a film filled to the brim with bickering. This is one holiday you'll be thrilled you're not on.
Francesca Rudkin
Cast
: Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Kristin Davis
Director
: Peter Billingsley
Running Time
: 112 mins
Rating
: M (sexual references)
