COUPLES RETREAT
US, 2009, 107 minutes, Colour.
Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Faizon Love, Jon Favreau, Malin Akerman, Kristen Bell, Kristin Davis, Kali Hawk, Jean Reno, Temuera Morrison.
Directed by Peter Billingsley.
Its heart's in the right place and one wishes it were better than it is. It is amusing in its way and has something to say about marriage and commitment.
A rather uptight couple (Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell), who use power point presentations to explain everything, prepare one about their felt need to break up. Their friends (who want to avoid these presentations) are dumbfounded – and then put on the spot to contribute to a special price for a 4 couples' discount at a Bora Bora resort where they can also learn some communication skills. After some toing and froing, they all go.
Joey and Lucy have been married for 18 years and his eye stray is straying despite his strict injunctions to their teenage daughter (Jon Favreau and Kristen Davis). Dave and Ronnie are happily, but busily, married with two young children (Vince Vaughn and Malik Akerman). Shane has been divorced and has taken up with 20 year old Trudi (Faison Love and Kali Hawk). What starts off as a holiday soon turns into therapy and group work under the eye of Marcel (Jean Reno).
It's all rather hit and miss humour, depending on what tickles your funny bone. On the serious side, under the mild spoofing of therapy (and men's aversion to it and baring their souls and feelings), a number of points are made that many couples would resonate with.
When the women and then the men go on a rescue mission for the 20year old to the singles' resort, the quality of the screenplay rather collapses and while there are happy endings and commitment all round, they come rather too fast to be quite as persuasive as intended. Jon Favreau takes on the kind of role we might expect from Vince Vaughn (who plays the husband and father) and is not very good at it. The rest of the cast do their thing well enough – and the script (which Vaughn and Favreau wrote) is more sympathetic to the women than the men.
Amusing rather than the telling comedy it might have been.
1.A comedy for adults, for the middle-aged?
2.The presentation of life in middle USA, families, homes, stores…?
3.The contrast with Polynesia, Bora Bora, the mountain, the sea, the island, the resort and the interiors, the musical score, songs?
4.Contemporary marriage and commitment? Problems, therapy?
5.Jason and Cynthia’s situation, talking to their friends, the party, the children enjoying themselves, the Power Point presentation, the crisis? Jason and his visiting the house at midnight, the alarm going off? The children, urging their parents to go, getting their grandfather?
6.The island East and West? The contrast? The staff, Stanley and his being unctuous? The service? The luxury cabins, the sea, the view? The opening meal, relaxed, getting the menu timetable? Resisting? Stanley laying down the law? The first day, Marcel, his style, his assistant? Disrobing, talking to each other, the various exercise, the shark-infested water, the yoga exercise, the therapists and techniques? The effect on each of the couples? The men resisting, the truths, the women more agreeable, the final crisis, walking for Trudy? Going to the East, the behaviour of the men and the women?
7.Dave and Ronnie, at home, Dave’s job, the kids, waking up, the wife getting ready to decorate the kitchen, his continuous phone calls, at the store, the tiles, the little boy going to the toilet, the party? The alarm in the night? The discussion with Jason? The decision to go? Dave and his male problems, reacting to the therapist? The therapist taking notes? The shark and his tantrums? The yoga and his wondering what was happening? The arguments with Joey? Ronnie, pleasant, the phone call to the children? Dave’s dad looking after the children? The final presentation of the ass?
8.Jason and Cynthia, obsessive, the Power Points, the shock about their breaking up, their plea for the couples to go, the discount, hopes? The midnight visit? Jason and his continually commanding Cynthia, controlling her? Cynthia obeying? The episode with the shark and his getting out of the water? The therapy? The reactions, Jason trying to get the best out of everything? His intellectual approach, being urged to express feelings? The search for Trudy and his unwillingness to go? His change of heart? The presentation of the rabbit?
9.Joey and Lucy, their daughter and her clothes, obedient, the tension in the house, the eighteen years of marriage? Joey and his eyeing the dancers at the island? Eating the meal, obeying the rules, the therapy, the arguments? The massage episodes? Joey’s reaction, the masseuse and her reaction? His hopes, raucous? Issues of fidelity? Lucy and her flirting? The speculative talk with Dave about relationships, men, Jason coming in? The jealousy? Joey and his attack on Salvadore? The presentation of the wolf?
10.Shane and Trudy, Shane and the divorce, his age, carrying on with Trudy? The meal and Trudy’s behaviour, Cynthia’s reaction? Naked and fat? The therapist? The bike-riding, the exercise, his being exhausted? The yoga? Trudy and her wanting to party, leaving? Jennifer arriving, their talking to each other? The reconciliation? The honey bee presentation?
11.The reconciliation, the awards, their all holidaying and going jet-skiing?
12.The film and its heart in the right place? Contemporary issues of commitment?
