Couples Retreat *** (2009, Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, Vince Vaughn, Malin Akerman, Jon Favreau, Kristin Davis, Faizon Love, Kali Hawk, Jean Reno) – Classic Movie Review 4628

Director Peter Billingsley’s 2009 Couples Retreat might only be a formulaic, lowbrow comedy but, with its first-rate cast and decent premise, it knows how to get you laughing.

Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell play a troubled childless couple on the verge of divorce who sign up for a make-or-break marital retreat on a South Pacific island paradise resort devoted to healing relationships. So they can get the group rate, they somehow manage to talk three other married couples into coming with them for a week.

Naturally, they soon discover that they are not the only couple with problems. Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman have lost their romance, Jon Favreau and Kristin Davis have roving eyes and Faizon Love has divorced his wife and is dating young Kali Hawk. This lot think that they are coming just for the holiday, but taking part in the idiotic therapy sessions turns out to be compulsory.

For easy laughs, our eight heroes find a right bunch of shameful stereotypes at the idyllic Eden resort: French martial-arts mystic Marcel (Jean Reno), English mincing manager Sctanley (Peter Serafinowicz) and sleazy sexpot Salvadore (Latin pop singer Carlos Ponce).

So is Couples Retreat any good? Yes and no. Vaughn and Favreau enjoy the best of what is going in the smart dialogue department, some of it very funny and nicely timed – but that is perhaps not surprising as they wrote it (along with Dana Fox).

It is noticeable that the actresses have very little worthwhile to do, which is a shame because they are talented and appealing. On the other hand, Serafinowicz and Ponce are more amusing than they ought to be, given the embarassingly silly stuff they have to do.

The comedy may be of the crude sitcom variety, some of it falling pathetically flat and some of it shamefully smutty. But, overall, the movie is often entertaining for all that, with a reasonably satisfying quota of laughs and funny one-liners.

It is rated PG-13 on appeal for sexual content and strong language.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4628

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