Faulty Rotten Reviews of Couples Retreat?

You can’t always believe what you read on Rottentomatoes.com.  The Movie “Couples Retreat” hit theaters across San Diego this weekend with a pre-release buzz that was nothing short of harsh to the Vince Vaughn comedy.

The previews were hilarious, so it was surprising to hear that the critics thought the film left a lot to be desired (13% on the “TomatoMeter” is no easy task).  Time Magazine called Couples Retreat a “sour, offensive, contrived story,” while the New York Times called it a “comedy of exhaustion.”

Of course more than one movie has been guilty of loading the trailer with every ounce of funny there is, leaving nothing left to be revealed in that actual film but filler (See Harold and Kumar II), so off to the theater we go to decide for ourselves.

(Photo by Fan the Fire Magazine via Flickr | CC BY 2.0)

The story follows four couples on a spontaneous trip to an island paradise resort called “Eden,” where they are forced to deal with the problems that plague their marriages. The four couples represent several of the typical life-stage personas that tend to beget marital woes and self examination.

The couple played by Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman are living the life of the typical American family; nice house, two small kids and a load of work and home related problems.  The second couple, played by Jon Favreau and Kristin Davis, are counting the minutes until their oldest daughter goes off to College so they can find a reprieve from the constricting shackles that have kept them bound together. The third couple, played by Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell, are the consummate young professionals that are unable to conceive a baby of their own, and are spending all their time and money over-analyzing both their relationship and medical options.  Finally, the couple played by Faizon Love, a man recently divorced, and Kali Hawk, his new 20 year old girlfriend, chronicle the relationship of a man who is desperately trying to fill the void of his broken life with a sexy young woman whom he is in no substantial way compatible.

The movie follows the couples trough a series of counseling sessions and crazy trust-building activities. The eccentric and self-proclaimed “relationship guru,” played by Jean Reno, helps the couples to deal with the problems they knew they had and had fought to ignore.

Ultimately the film made the audience laugh over and over again, and left them with a feeling of hope for those who may themselves be in any of the stages of life represented. The film offers hope of re-dedication to having fun with your spouse and enjoying life.

The therapy itself attempted to create an environment in which the couples would come to this conclusion through practice, in the end, each of the four couples independently chart their own path towards rediscovering why they fell in love and married their partner in the first place.

Despite the harsh ivory tower criticism, “Couples Retreat” undoubtedly will be a great success both in terms of Box office revenue and real audience reviews.  The moral of the story, “you can’t always believe what you read on Rottontomatoes.com.”

What did you think San Diego?  Leave your Comments below.