Newsfeed
Printer-Friendly ModeNew Vaughn project no retreat from standard romantic comedy formula
October 12, 2009 —
Let’s go back to a more innocent time for a moment. It’s 2004.
Despite boasting a resume that dates back to the early 1990s, Vince Vaughn is now a rising comedic star.
Old School, this generation’s answer to Animal House, is in heavy rotation in dorm rooms across the country.
His antagonist role in the irreverent Anchorman has him poised to be one of the heavy comedic hitters in the years to come.
Meanwhile, Jason Bateman is spending these innocent times as the crux of Arrested Development, one of the most intricate and brilliant television shows to ever grace network TV.
Skip ahead to 2009.
Vaughn followed up Anchorman with Wedding Crashers, an instantly beloved buddy comedy for the ages. But that comedic star loses a bit of its shine over the next several years with meandering projects such as The Break-Up and Fred Claus.
Meanwhile, Arrested Development is so brilliant that the Fox Network is clueless on how to promote it. Weak ratings lead to an unceremonious end to the show after two and a half years.
The series then becomes a cult favorite on DVD, further proving that network execs don’t exactly have their finger on the pulse of the public.
At this point, you might be asking when I’m going to start talking about Couples Retreat, the new comedy that not so coincidentally stars Vaughn and Bateman.
As someone who eagerly lapped up anything the two took part in all those years ago, it’s no easy task to start talking about the formulaic project that is Couples Retreat.
But since I’m being paid to do that, I suppose I must.
Couples Retreat is one of those rare movies that manages to include a number of talented actors and not be much better for it.
The premise includes four couples heading off to a tropical resort that specializes in couples therapy.
Only one of the couples is actually in need of any such counseling, but a group rate coaxes the other three pairs into joining.
Of course the resort staff is a bit eccentric and the intended vacation turns into an adventure filled with self-realization. Or something like that. The reality is that Couples Retreat holds no surprises or deviations from other movies of its ilk. It relies on the charms of Vaughn, Bateman and Jon Favreau (who co-wrote the script along with Vaughn).
There is rarely ever a sense that a story is unfolding. Instead, the one-dimensional characters seem more like props meant to follow the worn path other romantic comedies have trudged down countless times before.
It’s not so much that Couples Retreat is a bad movie. It just seems content to follow a tired formula, a disappointing surrender given comedic gifts of its screenwriters.
Romantic comedies are something of a necessity in the realm of film. But these types of movies generally don’t challenge its actors.
The gifted comedic actors featured are wasted plodding along within the context of such predictable cinema.
Couples Retreat works fine as a romantic comedy. It just isn’t the type of work Bateman or Vaughn seemed destined for not so long ago.
