By Shelly Williams/managing editor
Though the scenery from Couples Retreat is beautiful, that is about all the entire movie offers.
Dave (played by Vince Vaughn) and his wife Ronnie (Malin Akerman) are the epitome of the average American family — a happily married couple with two adorable kids. However, their friends are not.
Jason (Jason Bateman) and his wife Cynthia (Kristen Bell), struggling with their marriage, are considering divorce. In complete sync with each other and overly excited, the couple rounds up Dave, Ronnie and other friends and present a PowerPoint to their friends persuading them to take a group vacation to an island resort as their last chance to fix their marriage.
Shane (Faizon Love), a recently divorced man trying to put himself back on the singles market and his girlfriend Trudy (Kali Hawk) along with Joey (Jon Favreau) and his high school sweetheart Lucy (Kristin Davis), aren’t enticed by Jason and Cynthia’s plan, especially when the words “couples counseling” are thrown into the mix.
At first, the couples are reluctant to go as all refuse to acknowledge problems in their relationships. However, they pack their bags and fly to Eden, the resort and spa, after hearing counseling isn’t required.
They soon find out that their group-rate vacation comes with more than a honeymoon-type getaway, and each couple has an itinerary filled with couples counseling activities to help the couples search for their inner spirit animal, a creature that symbolizes their relationship and how it operates.
As the couples explore their problems with individual counselors, feeding sharks and an odd version of yoga, their antics seem almost over-the-top silly. And the couples begin to think Jason put them up to the resort’s therapeutic techniques.
However, the characters are easy to identify with as some relationships encounter problems such as relighting the spark, seeing a relationship as an actual relationship instead of a job and learning how to enjoy each other’s company.
The movie puts the characters in situations out of the norm. But Vaughn’s one-liners and his son in the movie (who easily reminds the audience of Alvin’s chipmunk brother, Theodore) make the movie much better than the previews shown on television.
Just as the movie wraps up and the couples overcome their issues, revealing each spirit animal for the couples, the audience is left feeling unfulfilled. The movie seems unfinished, and people will expect Jason to finally reveal he set his friends up or something worse will happen.
Overall, the movie isn’t worth seeing in theaters, but it is, in places, a cute feel-good movie some can relate to. And it will give the audience a few laughs.
