Couple's Retreat 020910

Jason and Cynthia (Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell) have been married for six years and after their recent disappointment of not being able to have a kid, they start to question their entire relationship. Their solution? They go to a couple’s resort called Eden that specializes in fixing broken relationships. Problem is, they can’t afford it, but they can afford the group rate, so they ask their friends to come along. Dave and Ronnie (Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman/the girl from Watchmen), a happily married couple who has fallen into the boredom of routine, Joey and Lucy (Jon Favreau and Kristin Davis) a couple who were married right out of high school because she got pregnant and are counting down the days til their daughter goes to school and they can divorce each other, and Shane (Faizon Love) a recently divorced man who takes his twenty year old girlfriend.

This movie was really funny. The difference in relationship statuses, while a tad stereotypical, all work well together for exploring the nature of relationships. They all have to work on different things but they’re all trying to get to the same place. It was nice that all of the problems weren’t the men’s fault only. Example, Joey and Lucy are both so looking forward to being apart that they, they being the plural, are constantly looking at other people. Ronnie and Dave’s relational exodus is particularly fun to watch. They’re both unaware they have a problem so you get to spend the entire movie watching the disagreement develop, start, and resolve. And, as un-PC as this thought is (like I care), it was really good to have a movie like this that didn’t have a gay couple.

The negative is nitpickyish. One thing that gets really annoying toward the end is consistency. During conversation cuts the actors are not even close to the position they were in when the camera jumped. It also wasn’t quite funny enough if that makes any sense. It wasn’t a bad movie and it was definitely a comedy, and a good one at that, but there were some missed joke opportunities. Offhand I can’t come up with examples but they were there. Also, a fight between Ronnie and Dave seems to only occur because the producers felt they needed to have a fight.

I give this movie a B. It’s a great date movie. Guys will actually enjoy it, you might get some insight about your relationship if you identify with any of the couples, and it’s nice to see a rom/com that actually takes place after happily ever after.