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The issues couples tend to develop over the course of their relationship have been comedy fodder since the creation of the romantic-comedy.
If you put a man and a woman who have been married for years together in a hardware store and have them pick out tile for the kitchen, the jokes basically write themselves.
With this in mind, Vince Vaughn could have really phoned it in on “Couple’s Retreat” and still made plenty of money. Instead, he actually put in some effort and the result is a better-than-average comedy.
The story follows Dave (Vaughn) and his wife Ronnie (Malin Akerman), a married couple with all the normal and sometimes comedic problems that entail.
Their friends Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) are another couple, one that’s having problems and considering divorce.
Then you’ve got Joey (Jon Favreau) and Lucy (Kristin Davis), the couple that married in high school and now hate each other, and finally the recently divorced Shane (Faizon Love) and his 20-year-old girlfriend Trudy (Kali Hawk).
The four couples decide to go on a couple’s retreat to a resort called Eden, and hilarity ensues when it’s not quite what they expected.
Yes, the premise is so formulaic that it’s just a matter of time before it starts showing up in physics textbooks as a universal constant.
But Vaughn’s films have always been more about his raw charisma than the story, and that’s especially true here.
Bateman and Favreau, while under utilized, are hilarious as always. Even the girls, traditionally relegated to the part of emotional props in a comedy, get ample jokes and screen time. The humor is snappy and generally spot on.
One of the issues is the worst part of any romantic-comedy, which is the unfunny reconciliation scene. There are four couples in this film, so there are four unfunny reconciliations. It takes forever, but is the perfect length for an extended bathroom break.
“Couple’s Retreat” is a punchy romantic-comedy, certainly a good example of the genre. If you’re in the mood for a comedy but squeamish enough that the gore of “Zombieland” will turn you away, then this film is a good alternative.
