Couples Retreat

There are RomComs that make you go oooh and aaah the entire time in mushiness (I can’t believe there is a word like that in MS Word). And there are RomComs that are nothing but an attempt at soft pornography under the garb of a RomCom or slapstick American comedy. Couples Retreat falls under the second category and that too quite easily. It is actually a no brainer about 15 minutes into the movie. And whats worse is that on Indian television most of the soft porn is edited. So you don’t even have that to look forward to. There would be more soft porn on the trailer that you find on imdb or on you tube than what you would see in the 2 hour slot that the Television channel provides for. So you are now caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. If you are really tempted to watch Couples Retreat then I suggest that you spend some time downloading the uncut version from wherever it is that people download movies. That too if you are that desperate. (if you have time to download stuff, you may as well download porn right why waste your time on soft porn).

Appealing to the Indian audiences however, would be a matter of supposed pride in the fact that this would be A R Rahman’s 2nd movie in Hollywood. Rahman could not have picked up something that was worse. He had Slumdog before this which was quite good as a matter of fact and 127 hours after which was average at best. But he should consider himself reasonably lucky that he got an opportunity after Couples Retreat because the music was an uninspiringly put together combination of songs and music that would be associated with the Caribbean and nothing more. There was hardly anything original about the entire project. And therefore, it is more embarrassing than a matter of pride when the credits say “Original Music By” and not just “Music By”. Regretably it has to do with one of my favourite composers of all time and in fact probably the most popular composer of our time.

Couples Retreat tries to cover the story of 4 couples who are apparently at various stages in a relationship. One is apparently doing reasonably well. The next is in a relationship that can best be described as promiscuous – they are both unaware of the word fidelity. The third spends time making power point presentations about how their married life has lost its spark – rather than do something about it. And the last guy is divorced and general humping around with a girl that is old (or should I say young) enough to be his daughter. All of this along with the direction (or should I say the lack of it) of Peter Billingsley in his first (and probably last) movie provides us with a cheap concoction of what is termed as classic American comedy. A true waste of time. 3 on 10 for some parts that are reasonable.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2681274905/