Couples Retreat (a review)

This'll be a quickie. This is exactly what you'd expect from a Vince Vaughn comedy. He plays a kind-of schlub who does the whole when-I-get-upset-I-start-talking-fast-and-even-though-I-should-be-angry-it-comes-out-as-being-funny-because-of-all-the-weird-and-innappropriate-things-I-say routine that he is famous for. The story is about four couples who go to a marriage counceling retreat at a tropical island together. Now, only one couple wants to be there -- the others go along as part of a package deal thinking they can skip the councelling stuff and have some fun on the beach. As the couples are forced through various odd councelling routines it puts stress on their relationships and friendships. But not too much stress. This is a comedy and most of the scenes are played more for laughs. So is it funny? Well, it's okay. I like Vaughn and while his schtick can get old (is that how you spell schtick? It's feels like it should have more consonants), when it's working he's about as funny as any other comedian around. The problem is the film is just...nice. There are some funny moments, but they never build off each other so they don't build up to any really big laugh scenes -- it's just a moment here, a moment there. I can see why a lot of people wouldn't like it -- it feels a bit by the numbers, there's no real go-for-it attitude with the humor, no point of view. That's because while the concept of movie is about couples an their problems the filmmakers clearly don't really care about any of that -- it's just there for concept and to get a couple laughs. That's okay for the first half, where they play out the comedy of these couples trapped into counseling, but by the second half where the couples' problem come more to the fore, there just isn't anything there. This isn't a movie that has anything to say about relationships or marriage or people in general, so that second half has a lot of running around (there's a party island next door that several people run off to), but it really just feels like empty running around. So think of it as Wedding Crashers-lite -- lite on funny, lite on insight, a version to watch while you play games with friends and friends. Which isn't bad. But isn't that funny either.

--Paul