“Couples Retreat” is marital hell

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:06:00 +0000

"Couples Retreat" begins with an adorable blond tyke peeing the bed and ends with the same kid taking a dump in a home-remodeling store. In between, four couples, including the exhausted parents of the aforementioned hellion, squabble (or don't), wrestle with their problems (or don't), and have sex. No, scratch that one -- no one in "Couples Retreat" is getting his or her groove on, which is one way the movie strives for a semblance of realism even as it reaches, desperately, for laughs.

But "Couples Retreat" is neither funny nor honest. The exact opposite of a retreat, it's merely exhausting. The director is actor and former child star Peter Billingsley (he played Ralphie in "A Christmas Story"); the script is by Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn and Dana Fox -- Favreau and Vaughn star in the picture as well. The story alone sounds promising enough: A couple that's been having trouble conceiving (played by Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell) find themselves on the verge of breaking up. As a last-gasp effort, they book themselves and three other couple-friends into a swanky tropical resort that offers "couples skill building" as a supposedly optional activity. One couple (Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman) is reasonably happy; another (Jon Favreau and Kristin Davis) is desperately unhappy; and one set (Faizon Love and Kali Hawk) isn't even married -- she's the 20-year-old rebound girlfriend he recently started dating after his divorce.

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“Couples Retreat” is marital hell