What promised to be a pretty entertaining comedy fell quite short. The movie was written by Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau who have teamed up in a number of movies together and are usually hilarious and directed by Peter Billingsly, who played the BB gun boy in A Christmas Story. But somehow putting all of them together did not equal out to a good comedy. I love Vince Vaughn but in his last couple of movies (Four Christmases) he has not been as funny and his quick one-liners are getting kind of old.
Couples Retreat revolves around four couples (three married, one recently divorced with a new girlfriend) who are all having some problems in their relationships. However, some are more serious than others.
From the persuasion of their friends Jason and Cynthia (Jason Bateman and Kristin Bell), Dave and Ronnie (Vaughn and Malin Akerman) along with the two other couples decide to go on a paradise getaway called Eden. Jason and Cynthia want to go to couple's therapy while they are there to work on their failing marriage and the other couples think they are along to enjoy the island.
At dinner the first night, they are told by the hotel manager that they must all go to couples therapy or they will not be welcome to stay there. Thinking that these sessions will take up only a small part of their day, they all agree to stay and cooperate.
The rest of the movie goes on with each of the couples having their own sessions with therapists, and working on exercises that are supposed to help them work on their relationships. You can see how many of the scenes are set up to be funny, but somehow they just don't deliver. For example, a part where the couples are out in the ocean feeding tropical fish, (I'm not really sure the reasoning behind this exercise) two sharks start swimming around Jason and Dave. Dave gets all hysterical and spills the bucket of fish and blood in the water. He swims safely back to the boat and later talks excessively about his "near-death experience."
I just think Vaughn and Favreau go too far with some jokes and not far enough with others. It just feels like they want to put so many jokes into the movie, but are not sure how to make them flow. The casting of the couples, though played by talented actors just don't seemed matched-up that well.
Anyway, the ending was probably the worst with everyone coming together and making everything work out. Seems a little forced and predictable.
The only truly funny parts were from Marcel (Jean Reno, The Professional) who leads the couples therapy exercises, flouncing around in his tantric-like dresses and Salvadore (Carlos Ponce) who plays a hunky yoga instructor with methods that are a little inappropriate but add the comedic flair I was looking for throughout the movie.
If you are a die-hard Vince Vaughn fan, then watch it. If you are looking for good entertainment, pass this one by.
Stars *****
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