Eight friends, all coupled, find themselves on a Couples Retreat under the guise of a fun, adult vacation in Eden. As it turns out, there's one small hitch: each are required to meet with counselors and work on their relationships. Not all of them are happy about it and, in fact, the two who put the trip together (Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell) are in the most treacherous waters after failing to conceive a child. Dave and Ronnie (Vince Vaughn, Malin Akerman) have two boys at home but no time for themselves. Recently divorced Shane (Faizon Love) is dating a 20-something named Trudy (Kali Hawk) who wants to dance and drink and have fun. And then there's Joey and Lucy (Jon Favreau, Kristen Davis), a couple intending to divorce once their daughter goes to college.
With so many characters and storylines, director Peter Billingsley's second directorial outing has the talent to be successful and an absolutely beautiful location to work with, but feels overstuffed and "normal." It's in the first ten or fifteen minutes we see the eventual problem with the story: too much to do and not enough time to do it in. Small scenes of exposition are laid out on the screen designed to demonstrate the marital issues between each couple. And the film has the service all four storylines for the entire running time, almost as if juggling firecrackers and hoping not to miss one. We're never allowed to get to know these people as people; rather, they're just pieces to be moved from one place to another to get to the finale. The unintended byproduct of too much going on if the story takes the easy way out for each couple without asking them (and the audience) to really examine each partnership.
It should be said at the outset that the location shooting in Bora-Bora is absolutely stunning. Billingsley is able to turn the camera in nearly any direction and capture the wondrous beauty of the ocean and island. If anything, Couples Retreat can serve as a calling card for the island as a tourist location. Clear blue ocean, pure white sand, seemingly perfect weather all the time, villas with floor ports to watch the fish in the ocean...at least one part of the film lives up to the billing.
In the beginning segment, the story moves from Dave not being interested in picking out new tile with Ronnie to Shane pleading with Dave to co-sign for Trudy's motorcycle (she calls him Daddy...) to Jason and Cynthia (Bateman, Bell) working on their Eden power point presentation for their friends while Lucy and Joey can barely stand to look at one another. Now, each of these are valid relationship issues which deserve to be investigated in depth. They come into play throughout the film as the characters personify their relationships. For example, Jason and Lucy plan everything with graphs and analysis, a frustrating way to live to be sure. There is no spontaneity for them, no deviation from the norm. And the story keeps hammering it into our heads. Over and over again. Jason adheres rigorously to a schedule created by the group's counselor Marcel (Jean Reno), including when they can and can not eat or drink. One gets the feeling that, if he could put away the calendar and plans for a minute, he and Cynthia wouldn't have that hard a time conceiving. For a time, he comes off as the most sane one in the group. They are clearly in love, fully aware of their failings and open to working on them. Not that the others aren't aware. They just choose not to confront them.
Just like the film's chooses not to let the actors shine in the way they can. Only the men are given anything meaningful to do; Akerman has a substantial role as well, but even Ronnie devolves into a giggling, drooling caricature by the finale. It's unfortunate both Bell and Davis are basically wasted since they can stand up to their respective husbands and engage in witty conversation. Most of these people have been together for long periods of time. As such, they should know how to get under one another's skin. But they don't. I can't believe they have too much respect for one another, especially considering what is said both on the singles side of the island and in therapy. They're restrained, civil, unlike what people are in real life. Had they gone at it, David and Favreau could have handled anything given to them. An early scene setting up their relationship proves the point. Both are able to be pointed and witty. So why not let them?
Couples Retreat paints with a broad brush in both the serious relationship storyline and in the humor which dots each and every scene. It's not enough for yoga instructor Salvadore (the impossibly ripped Carlos Ponce) to demonstrate each position. He has to make them all sexual in nature, thrusting, pulsating and pounding the men and women. A true yoga instructor, you'd have to imagine, would be fully cognizant of how the moves would be seen, adjusting accordingly. When Marcel tells the group to remove their masks (aka their clothing), it's played as a joke instead of the horrific moment it should have been. Who, after all, wants to see their friends naked? (A minor quibble: the instruction is to remove all clothing. Boxers, bras and panties are left on. I know this is a PG-13 flick and these actors aren't going to do full frontals, but at least mention underwear so it doesn't look like everyone on the screen is a total idiot.)
Since it goes over-the-top so much in every aspect, it's impossible to know what the story is really getting at. Are we supposed to be watching scenes from real marriages, amped up a bit for the screen? Or a farce, in which case the finale is hideously out of place? The ending...as if there's any doubt how it's going to end. To be honest and truthful to the subject matter, at least one couple needs to split. But none do. Okay, that's not exactly truthful. One does and through plot machinations, both end up happier. And one leaves coupled.
Speaking of the comedy, it's hard not to point out the places the script uses convenience over truth to advance itself. After breaking into Dave's house, Jason starts a conversation centering on divorce and other uncomfortable subjects. Of course, as children always do, Dave's kids find themselves on the stairs, literally pushing Dave and Ronnie out the door. Hell, they've even called grandpa already to take care of them. And the minute grandpa's name is spoken aloud...yup, the doorbell rings. Really? Sub-ten-year-old kids worried about their parents splitting up, going so far as to call themselves a caretaker? Um, okay... (A running gag about one son and display toilets may be the funniest thing in the film.)
The composition of the group is maddeningly "normal." When a film like this purports to show marriages and relationships on the verge of destruction, varying up the participants helps the marketing potential and the texture differences bring. Couples Retreat features six white people and two black. All straight. All middle class (possibly upper middle or upper in the case of Jason and Cynthia). No one from the other side of the tracks. That's terribly boring. Now, imagine the yoga scene I described before with a gay couple. Or an interracial pair. How about a relationship with three people? More comedy possibilities, not to mention showcasing something besides the norm.