Movie review: Couples Retreat

by Alex Bentley

In recent months, I have made a pact with myself that I would try to limit the amount of promotion I would see for a movie before it comes out. I'll look at an initial trailer for a film, and if it catches my interest, I'll add it to my list and avoid any other trailers or commercials since most of those either give too much away about the film or pound the movie's best moments into your brain over and over again.

Why do I bring this up? Because Couples Retreat – the new comedy co-written by Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, and Dana Fox, and directed by Peter “Ralphie” Billingsley – has been especially egregious in this respect, with the same ad featuring the same “funny” moments running ad nauseam on TV in recent weeks (and since I watch most programs via DVR and fast-forward through ads, you know they've done a lot). I hesitate to bring this up since I believe that a film should be based upon its merits and not its advertising, but the glut of ads attached to it was hard to ignore.

The film, in case the title doesn't make it clear, is about four couples who go on a retreat to the island-based Eden Resort. The trip is the idea of Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell), who are contemplating divorce and view the trip as their last chance to salvage their marriage. They convince the rest of the group – Dave and Ronnie (Vaughn and Malin Akerman), Joey and Lucy (Favreau and Kristin Davis), and Shane and Trudy (Faizon Love and Kali Hawk) – to come along with the promise of (relatively) cheap rates and lots of fun in the sun.

Note to comedy filmmakers: Fabio-type guy in a Speedo does not automatically equal hilarity.

Naturally, when they get there, dreams of jet-skiing and drinking all day turn into bonding exercises and therapist sessions. Any attempt to veer from activities designed to strengthen their relationships is met with hostility by the leader of the retreat, Marcel (Jean Reno), and his underlings. The rest of the film is made up of the various characters' acceptance or non-acceptance of the rules, and how those reactions affect their experiences on the island.

The film never gains any traction because it never decides what it wants to be. At points it seems as if the filmmakers want the audience to laugh at the crazy activities the group does, but when the most outrageous things involve a slightly-randy, skimpily-clad yoga instructor and the least-threatening sharks you'll ever see, it's hard to get worked up about it. It's also hard to feel sorry for a group that's “forced” to get massages and swim in crystal clear blue water.

There's also a miscalculation when it comes to the therapy sessions, as instead of making them wacky and offbeat, Vaughn, Favreau, and Fox chose to go the “brutal truth” route, with each couple enduring a dissection of their relationship. Why employ John Michael Higgins and Ken Jeong, two noted comic actors, as therapists if all you're going to do is have them go all In Treatment on their patients? By including this portion, Retreat is similar to another Vaughn film, The Break-Up. Broad comedy and serious investigations of relationships are not an easy mix, and Vaughn is now 0-for-2 in making it work.

Heed Marcel's advice -- stay far, far away from this film.

The failure of the film may have been a case of friends not being willing to tell each other (or not knowing) that what they were doing wasn't working. Vaughn, Favreau, and Billingsley have a long history together, and with this being Billingsley's feature directorial debut, his two good buddies may not have been able to provide the perspective that he needed (and vice versa, since they were the writers). Frequent collaborators can often be a good thing in the film world, but not in this case.

Not much to say on the acting side. Vaughn actually surprises by playing Dave as a normal, down-to-earth kind of guy. Of course, he's counter-balanced by Favreau yet again playing the jerk of the film, a position made even more irritating since Davis' Lucy is apparently willing to put up with his behavior. Bateman and Bell seem like a mismatch from the beginning, so their ups and downs are never truly believable. Love and Hawk have some funny moments, but her calling him “Daddy” repeatedly grates on the nerves.

Couples Retreat tries to play both sides of the ball by using both fantasy and reality elements, and it ends up succeeding at neither. This is one getaway that's not worth visiting.