Australia's Best Movie Magazine

Film reviews

Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

search the site

Enter search term:

newsletter

Enter your email address below to receive the weekly Filmink newsletter

Enter search term:

Couples Retreat (Film)

by Sarah-Jane Lamont | October 08, 2009 11:22 | Edited October 08, 2009 12:26

Despite a big star comedy cast, Couples Retreat fails to deliver more than your average laugh.

It's been a few years since Vince Vaughn has put pen to paper but for the latest romantic comedy Couples Retreat, he has re-teamed with Swingers writer and co-star Jon Favreau to again explore the humorous side of relationship dynamics. As opposed to trawling the singles scene, Vaughn and Favreau, along with Bateman and Love, play four friends experiencing marital troubles - in varying degrees - that agree as a group to take a tropical holiday with their partners, though find themselves duped into compulsory couples therapy.

 

What follows is a series of uncomfortable mishaps as the couples struggle to recapture the FUN in their relationship - Dave (Vaughn) and Ronnie (Akerman) not realising it had left them in the first place and Joey (Favreau) and Lucy (Davis) believing it to be an impossibly pointless feat.

 

Everything about this movie seems right - the entertaining cast, to-die-for location shots, a fresh concept brought from Vaughn and Favreau and a solid message that everyone has problems, but it is the working through them that pulls a couple closer together. However, all the ingredients for a great film seem to miss the mark slightly, making it an okay crowd-pleasing rom-com rather than a must-see. Forever likeable Vaughn and the lovely Malin Akerman save the film through their humour and accessibility, but disappointingly, despite the quirkiness the rest of the cast, they are not particularly likable - Favreau's Joey is definitely an acquired taste - and you find by the end that you don't really care whether they make it or not.

 

Couples Retreat does provide a few laughs, (and a few cringes thanks to the Fabio-inspired gyrating ‘couples yoga' instructor) so if an easy watch is what you're after this will do the trick, simply keep expectations at a modest level and it won't be a waste of time.