Word: eden
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...about four couples who go to Eden, a luxury tropical resort that features couples counseling along with its crystalline waters and multiple hot tubs. Vaughn plays the leader of the glum-married pack, Dave, a producer of video games (including Guitar Hero) who lives with his chirpy wife Ronnie (Malin Akerman) and kids in a snowy suburb. Favreau is Joey, a former high school-football star who got cheerleader Lucy (Kristin Davis) pregnant on prom night, did the "right" thing and has been growing toxically bitter ever since...
...Neither man wants therapy, and their spouses don't either - Joey and Lucy are secretly planning a divorce - but their fertility-challenged, type-A friends Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) are desperate for it, though they can afford Eden only at a group rate. So off everyone goes to Bora Bora with the expectation that the feelings talk is optional. Instead, they are forced into having their relationships analyzed by the resident guru, Monsieur Marcel (Jean Reno), and a team of therapists that includes John Michael Higgins (a brief bright spot) and Ken Jeong, who gets a laugh...
...stereotyping that being taken out in the first act would seem like a favor.) Dave grudgingly agrees to the loan because he's a mensch but reminds Shane of all the financial trouble he's in. Does anyone bring up those finances when it comes to the bill for Eden? No, because they need Shane and Trudy for comic relief and to make the movie seem less like a portrait of whining white upper-middle-class people. Only to a point, though - looking at a poster for the movie, you have to squint to find Love and Hawk. They...
...charm and youthful beauty. Here he's been neutered, and Favreau takes on the role instead. It's not that Favreau isn't believable as Joey, a horny guy who is angry at the hand life has dealt him. It's that he's too believable. He arrives at Eden with the sole goal of looking for a fresh piece of womanhood, then discovers that it's obtainable only at Eden East, the nearby (and off-limits) singles resort...
...moisturizer, shuddering at the memory) and all but demand some extended bodywork from a hapless masseuse. It's gruesome. Undeniably, Favreau brings conviction to the part, but he wrote himself into a hole. Our idea of a happy ending might entail Joey being devoured by sharks somewhere east of Eden. Instead we get marital resolutions based on the fear that nothing is worse than being alone at Applebee's on a Friday night. Lucy may beg to differ by the time Couples Retreat: Return to Eden opens...