Ready for a vacation? Me too.
Couples Retreat offers you a breezy one but you’ll have to talk about your relationships or you’ll be thrown off the island.
The cute factor and laughs will keep you happy to be there though.
Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) are a neurotic, studious couple having marriage problems. They decide to go to a couples resort called Eden to keep their marriage from spiraling towards divorce. They have found a package that would allow them to pay half of what it would usually cost, but they need to have three couples join them.
They recruit Dave (Vince Vaughn) and Ronnie (Malin Akerman), Joey (Jon Favreau) and Lucy (Kristen Davis), and Shane (Faizon Love) Trudy (Kali Hawk).
Dave and Ronnie are married with kids and suffering through the usual hurdles. Ronnie and Dave were high school sweethearts but are no longer in love. Shane is recently divorced and is dating the twenty-year-old Trudy and is certainly up for an island holiday.
The couples are initially resistant because of the therapy involved but Jason and Cynthia tell them that it isn’t mandatory and they can relax while Jason and Cynthia work on their marriage. So everyone commits to the vacation, but when they arrive they find the therapy is mandatory and the island’s owner, Marcel (Jean Reno), has some strange ideas for therapy.
They also discover that there’s a hedonistic section of the island and some of the unhappier members of our couples want to skip out to go to the naughty side of paradise. If they leave they’ll only get a partial refund so our frugal friends are stuck on the island for the duration, but they will find that no one’s relationship is as solid as they thought.
Couples Retreat examines some serious marital problems but does it with a comedic bent. Happily so, since the film is pretty funny. I only mention it because as some of the deleted scenes show the couples could’ve been put in a more negative (realistic?) light and that wouldn’t have resulted in the smiles at the ending of the film.
The way the film plays now you get the impression that two of our arguing couples are all bluff, the deleted scenes show that they’re more than willing to engage in some “extracurricular” activities.
I guess all that is aside since those are deleted scenes. I will say that only in a comedy can all of life’s little problems be solved in 90 minutes or less. Life is definitely messier, but if I wanted reality I wouldn’t be putting a disc in the old Blu-ray player.
Couples Retreat is a pleasant trip away from the doldrums of reality and does offer some relationship related giggles. We’re presented with a collection of archetypes (the older male wishing to get with the young female, the happy couple who discover that maybe they’re not so happy, the older man with the younger gal who finds he is too old, etc.) and their problems.
It’s all in good fun and you just know a happy ending is going to happen (well, maybe not in the massage department – that’s not offered on this section of the island). There are plenty of laughs to be found and this is a passable Caribbean concoction so grab your grass skirt and prepare to have a good time.
Couples Retreat is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1). Special features are presented in high definition.
U-Control features a picture-in-picture commentary with director Peter Billingsley and actor/co-writer/producer Vince Vaughn. Other Blu-ray exclusives include BD-Live connectivity and the Pocket Blu app for Apple products.
There’s also a 3 minute alternative ending, 10 minutes of deleted scenes (the Blu-ray contains two exclusive scenes), and 4 minutes of alternative scenes. Each of those also features an optional commentary with Billingsley and Vaughn.
Next you get a 3 minute gag reel, the 5 minute “Therapy’s Greatest Hits” with gags from the therapy sessions, the 6 minute “Paradise Found” about shooting in Bora Bora (poor babies… it looks gorgeous), and a 4 minute “Behind the Yoga” focusing on the scene in the film. Disc two contains a digital copy for your PC or portable device.
Couples Retreat is passable fun. Don’t expect much real relationship advice, but I’d think that the gorgeous Bora Bora scenery, even lovelier in high-def, would help anyone who is having problems.
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