Movie Review - 'Couples Retreat'

Couples Retreat Starring Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, and Malin Akerman Directed by Peter Billingsley Rated PG-13

What does it say about your scripted comedy when the funniest moments are clearly off-the cuff? The same does not hold true for the Christopher Guest mockumentaries, which famously and daringly rely on the improvisational skills of their actors rather than written dialogue, but for a comedy like Couples Retreat, it's a bad, bad sign. Stars Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau have written scripts together before. Obviously, Swingers looks great by comparison, but that was the work of younger, hungrier men who probably couldn't afford to go to Bora Bora on vacation, much less to shoot a movie there. And perhaps that's the problem. Maybe Vaughn and Favreau (though mostly Vaughn based on his work over the past several years) just don't have the drive anymore because there's no need to be driven. Swingers required constant work to get off the ground, and Couples Retreat required phone calls. It's more true than it isn't that musicians and songwriters become sated once they reach the brass ring, and there's no reason that can't be true of actors, screenwriters, and directors. The film's plot is simple, although I confess it's so simple someone else should have thought of it first. That they didn't is one of the few credits to Vaughn, Favreau and director Peter Billingley to be found. Yes, the idea is a breeding ground for comedy: Four couples escape to an island paradise because one of them is seeking marital counseling. In their haste to visit the tropics, the couples didn't realize that everyone on the island will undergo the same regimen of relationship therapy. Hilarity, we presume, will ensue. It doesn't. Or, more specifically, beyond what you may have seen in the commercials or trailers - which also wouldn't qualify as "hilarity" - it doesn't. Yes, there are a few good lines or sight gags, but they don't serve the characters or the story that well. It's a problem many comedies face, because the scripts are so bad there's nothing all that funny about them. It is so easy to bring up The Hangover, which is about as perfect an example of a modern adult comedy as you'll find. Everything funny in the movie is driven by the previous actions of the characters, and each subsequent funny thing that happens builds more of a foundation for those characters. Sounds simple, right? Instead, most comedies use their stories to bridge what they think will be the highlights, only they can't be because they're so inorganic. That's why Couples Retreat can put two guffaws in the commercials: Those scenes can stand on their own as being amusing, but 90 minutes of things that stand alone is exactly that. Earlier, I said that Vaughn, Favreau, and Billingsley deserve some credit for at least doing a variation on this set-up before somebody else did. The other thing that they definitively did well is the film's casting. In addition to the two faces of the project, Jason Bateman and Faizon Love are good fits for their characters, and I like Kristen Bell as Bateman's wife. They're the couple seeking the counseling, although we learn, of course, that everyone involved could use a little improvement here or there. I don't know that we got as much out of Malin Akerman or Kristin Davis as we should have - some punchlines and astonished looks - but this is more a boy's club than anything else. That leads me to question again why this film is rated PG-13. Some of the scenes are clearly not written with the 13 - 17 year old demo in mind, so an R rating would have been more appropriate. But that's just part of the long list of things the filmmakers got wrong here.

Comments

[lorz]

i really like this cast as i saw many of them talents through The Break up (2006). it is nice to see many of them again in this comedy movie. though it seems like comedy one it goes in to deep of marriage life. i went to see it with my husband and we had great time. we also learn some thing from the movies.

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[frankyj]

I also learned something from the movie. Never to spend 10 dollars on a PG-13 comedy ever again.

[Steven]

You can watch it at http://www.hitflix.net for free.

I had to fill out some survey thing before the movie would play. It was one of Brad Pitt's best performances ever!