| Movie DescriptionDave (Vince Vaughn), a dealer for Guitar Hero, and Ronnie (Malin Akerman), a stay at home mom, are a typical couple with two young boys. They experience various stresses in their lives, including redecorating their house and raising their sons. Joey (Jon Favreau) and Lucy (Kristen Davis) are high school sweethearts with a typical rebellious teenage daughter named Lacey. They are unhappy and their relationship is on the rocks. Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) are a neurotic couple who've experienced multiple failed attempts to conceive. And Shane (Faizon Love), who has recently separated, has a much younger twenty-something girlfriend, Trudy (Kali Hawk).
At Dave's son's birthday party, Jason and Cynthia call a side meeting and, using PowerPoint, they announce their troubled marriage and that they are considering divorce because they can't have a baby. As a last ditch effort to save their marriage, they have found a special couples therapy resort named "Eden". They have found a package deal named the "Pelican Package": half the normal cost if they can get 3 other couples to join them. In their PowerPoint presentation, they show beautiful pictures of sunlit beaches, and assure the others that the couples therapy parts are purely optional.
That night, Dave & Ronnie discuss their stresses, their desire to go to the retreat, and their inability to go because of childcare responsibilities. Suddenly their home security alarm is activated when Jason shows up unexpectedly, making a house visit to further sell the idea of the retreat. The commotion wakes up Dave and Ronnie's kids, who reveal that they have overheard their parents' conversations. Fearing that their parents are contemplating divorce, the kids have already arranged for Dave's father to come babysit them so that their parents can go to "Eden".
Eden proves to be divided into "Eden West" and "Eden East". "Eden West" is for couples and uses the tagline "Stay Together"; "Eden East" is for singles and uses the tagline "Come Together." "East" and "West" attendees are not allowed to intermingle. Upon arrival at Eden West, the four couples are shown the villas they will be staying in, and then gather for dinner. At dinner, Sctanley, the resort host (Peter Serafinowicz) informs them that the couples therapy, which starts at 6.00 am, is actually mandatory, and that, if any couple fails to attend, it will be taken as an indication that they want to leave, and a partial refund will be given. As most of the group had been reluctant to do the couples therapy in the first place, they debate whether they should go; but after an indulgent dinner with many delicacies, they decide to put up with "a couple of hours" of therapy in the morning in order to enjoy the other amenities of the resort.
In the morning, each couple meets with an assigned therapist. All four couples learn that they have problems with their relationships, even Ronnie and Dave, who thought they were fine. They endure the resort owner Marcel's (Jean Reno) unusual methods, including swimming with and feeding Lemon sharks and yoga sessions with amorous instructor Salvadore (Carlos Ponce). |
