COUPLES RETREAT
Rated PG-13 for sexual content and language.
107 minutes
Universal Pictures
*** ½ out of 5
Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau are great friends. This is very apparent as they have now starred in five films together since their original collaboration “Swingers” back in 1996 and its unintentional sequel “Made.” Along the way they have made a pretty good friendship with little Ralphie Parker himself (“A Christmas Story”), Peter Billingsley. He has appeared with them both in the boring-except-when-Vaughn-and-Favreau-are-on-screen-together “The Break-Up,” joined them in last year’s “Four Christmases” along with small roles in Favreau’s own “Elf” and “Iron Man” and now the trio bring us “Couples Retreat.”
When Vaughn and Favreau are on-screen together their rantings usually get heated and tense but all for the sake of comedy. The verbal diarrhea these two spew upon an audience in just a matter of minutes is usually always hilarious if you can catch half of what either is saying between taking breaths.
Out of Vaughn and Favreau’s pairings, all but one have either been storied or scripted by either of them. Of those five Favreau directed “Made” himself but this time has handed the directorial reigns over to Billingsley and the results are slightly mixed but the spirited cast keep the film rolling along thanks to a witty script co-written by Vaughn and Favreau along with hack Dana Fox who brought us the crap-fests “The Wedding Date” and “What Happens in Vegas.”
I don’t know where Dana Fox found the magic lamp she’s rubbed that granted her wish to be a prolific Hollywood screenwriter but the genie within needs to be rubbed out. I haven’t found anything online that makes mention of this but she obviously is good friends with Cameron Diaz as out of the five films she’s credited with, all but one will have starred Diaz. It’s almost ironic that this film stars Malin Akerman who looks almost exactly like Diaz.
The script heard throughout “Couples Retreat” does manage to give me some hope for Fox as it’s easily the funniest movie she’s been involved in and while “What Happens in Vegas” was by no means a laughfest, it did manage a few guilty chuckles. Her next film is titled “Wichita” starring Diaz alongside Tom Cruise reuniting them after 2001’s “Vanilla Sky” and is being directed by James Mangold with a co-writing credit with Scott Frank and Mangold so fingers crossed.
“Couples Retreat” stars Vaughn as Dave who is seemingly happily married to Ronnie (Malin Akerman). They have two youngsters of whom the youngest seems to take particular love in making his parents life miserable in public by using toilet displays in home improvement stores. Joey (Favreau) is married to high school sweetheart Lucy (Kristin Davis) whom he knocked up before graduation and are trying to make it through each day arguing over who was supposed to mail the tuition check while talking sense into their now grown daughter who just wants to leave the house looking like an escort for hire. Shane (Faizon Love) is the one-liner dropping newly divorced friend who has just started a “relationship” with a 20-year-old named Trudy (Kali Hawk) who likes to call him “Daddy” in public which is ultra creepy as he’s easily twice her age. While at a birthday party for one of Dave and Ronnie’s kids the group is talked into attending a power point presentation given by their friends Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) who inform them that after years of marriage and trying cannot conceive. This has put such a strain on their relationship that they are now considering divorce but would like to give it one last try by being joined with their motley crew for a week-long getaway to the Eden Resort.
Once on the island they find out that while Jason and Cynthia are getting what they came for, relationship rebuilding, the rest of the group has to join in these exercises or forfeit their stay and forced to return home. Since they are already there and it’s an all inclusive resort the rest of them decide they might as well stay. Joey meanwhile finds out that while they are in Eden East across the water on a separate island is Eden West where the singles get to party and the focus of that island is simply: sex. One morning after Shane wakes up to find Trudy missing Joey knows that she must be on Eden East and devises a plan for everyone to bring her back but not without an ulterior motive.
Whether everyone is snorkeling in shark infested waters, sitting in an inexplicable sauna hut that sheds snow or canoeing out into open waters to find Trudy, the non-stop banter between characters is strictly where the strong points of the film lie. Some of the couples realize that they have troubles unbeknownst and others begin to try to work through the troubles they were there for in the first place but in the end everyone comes to realize something wholehearted which brings the film together and everything finally works.
Originally rated R but granted a PG-13 after appeal you can easily tell where scenes were trimmed and lines were altered with jarring camera angles. The DVD/Blu-ray editions will undoubtedly sport an unrated version. So whether you’re looking for a great date movie or just out for a slightly raunchy good time this weekend you could easily do worse. With Halloween creeping upon us and October being known as one of Hollywood’s dumping months it’s nice to have a movie live up to its premise and offer such a great escape, even if you’re just watching a live-action screen saver for two hours.
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