Kristen Bell, Jon Favreau, Kristin Davis, Faizon Love, Kali Hawk, Malin Ackerman, Vince Vaughn and Jason Bateman holiday together in Couples Retreat
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Review: Couples Retreat starring Vince Vaughn (15)
By Kim FrancisOctober 21, 2009
Cracks are visible in this holiday hell
With a chequered acting career that includes a recurring part in Friends as well as supporting roles in films like The Break-Up, Wimbledon and Four Christmases, it’s fair to say that Jon Favreau’s early promise as an indie auteur has never been realised.
Rising to prominence with the self-penned, breakthrough low-budget hit Swingers, co-starring regular collaborator Vince Vaughn, Favreau followed up by stepping behind the camera to chase mainstream success with the Will Ferrell vehicle Elf and last year’s well-received Iron Man.
Having last teamed up with Vince Vaughn in 2008’s much-maligned Four Christmases, the comic partnership pair up again for their latest joint venture Couples Retreat.
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Written by and starring Vaughn and Favreau, the story is based around anally-retentive couple Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) whose marriage is in crisis because of an inability to conceive.
When they get wind of a group discount on trips to an exclusive beach resort specialising in providing therapy for warring couples, they persuade their friends to tag along.
But the friends don’t realise that the therapy sessions are compulsory.
And predictably, it’s not long before the cracks start to appear.
The most troubling thing about this film is arguably the imbalance between the couples. With the female halves of the pairings made up of stunners including Malin Akerman, Kristen Bell and Sex and the City’s Kristin Davis, you’ll have a hard time believing that they’d go for the likes of Vaughn’s emotionally stunted man-child and Favreau’s repulsive sleaze.
And, although the film’s message that marriage takes work and needs attention is honourable, its moralising is aggravatingly simplistic and head-smackingly hypocritical, coming as it does from Hollywood – an industry renowned for its short-lived marriages.
This Judd Apatow-lite attempt to recreate Forgetting Sarah Marshall isn’t particularly funny but he should thank its lucky stars that Jason Bateman took a role. He alone lifts it from an instantly forgettable one-star failure to a slightly more respectable two-star also-ran.
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