Step 1: Get a little help from your friends. Although it has its moments, Couples Retreat isn’t so much a movie but rather a giant excuse for some real-life BFFs to hang out in South Pacific.
Step 2: And why NOT hang out in Bora Bora? If you are going to contrive a plot in which four couples – all friends – go to a tropical-island resort which specializes in relaxation AND couple therapy, then you might as well make it one of the more beautiful places in the world. One of the couples – Cynthia (Kristen Bell) and Jason (Jason Bateman) – are there to legitimately work on their marriage, but the others (Vince Vaughn and Malin Akerman; Kristin Davis and Jon Favreau; and Faizon Love and Kali Hawk) don’t realize that participation in the resort’s therapy sessions is not optional. Everyone gets in on the fun, however.
Step 3: Love the one you’re with. Swingers pals Vaughn and Favreau, plus Couples Retreat director Peter Billingsley have been old friends from way back. Maybe they haven’t had much of a chance to spend some quality time together, so they concocted Couples Retreat as a way to do that. “Hey, let’s go to Bora Bora, under the pretenses of making a silly movie about couples and therapy and whatever, and just hang out,” the guys might have said to each other. “We’ll invite Jason Bateman and Faizon Love, too, cause those dudes crack us up. And let’s get hotties Kristen Bell, 
Kristin Davis and Malin Akerman to play the wives. Sound good? Hell to the YES, that sounds good!” Vaughn and Favreau have a natural ease onscreen and definitely mesh well with the funny ensemble cast they collected (including hilarious cameos from favorite bit players John Michael Higgins, Ken Jeong and Jean Reno). It’s just a shame the script is so generic, and the movie drags.
Level of difficulty in watching Couples Retreat: Fairly easy. Pretty girls, a beautiful location and some funny bits between old friends can go a long way. Not ALL the way but close enough.