‘Spa Weekend’ Goes for Comedy Zen but Slips Into Cringe

Synopsis: Three friends go on a spa weekend that descends into chaos when their trainwreck friend joins, leading to hilarious consequences.
Director: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Stars: Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, Michelle Buteau, Anna Faris

I appreciate the humour of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one. The duo directed 21 & Over and the Bad Moms movies, and they are probably best known for writing the screenplay for The Hangover. These two know their way around a comedy, particularly one built around an ensemble of characters behaving badly.

Unfortunately, Spa Weekend is not one of their better efforts.

The film brings together four lifelong friends: Jane (Leslie Mann), Coco (Michelle Buteau), Sophie (Anna Faris) and Mel (Isla Fisher). They grew up as best friends, but adulthood has changed their dynamic. Jane, Coco and Sophie have remained close while Mel, the wild child of the group, has increasingly found herself on the outside.

With the stresses of life piling up, Coco books a luxurious spa getaway for Jane’s birthday. The idea is for the trio to relax, reconnect and temporarily escape their everyday problems.

Then Sophie invites Mel.

Mel is loud, impulsive, unpredictable and completely lacking in a filter. She is essentially a walking disaster, and once she arrives, any hope of a peaceful weekend disappears.

It doesn’t take long for things to spiral.

Sophie finds herself dealing with problems at work, Coco is confronted by the arrival of her ex-husband, Roger, and Jane develops an attraction to Kai (Adam Demos), a yoga instructor at the resort. Meanwhile, Mel continues doing what Mel does best: creating chaos. A stolen golf cart, an out-of-control party and a series of increasingly ridiculous decisions eventually put the women at odds with resort manager Shanti and threaten to get them thrown out altogether.

If all of this sounds familiar, that’s because it is.

Spa Weekend feels like someone threw The Hangover, Bad Moms and Girls Trip into a blender, hoping the mix would turn out fresh. Instead, the movie frequently comes across as a lesser version of comedies we’ve already seen.

There is nothing inherently wrong with borrowing a familiar formula. Comedy has always recycled situations and character types. The problem is that you need to bring something new to the table, whether that’s memorable characters, clever writing or, most importantly, big laughs.

Spa Weekend doesn’t have enough of any of them.

The movie constantly mistakes outrageousness for humour. The situations get bigger, louder and more ridiculous, but rarely more entertaining. There are moments where you can almost see the joke coming several seconds before it arrives, and when it does, the payoff isn’t strong enough. Instead of laughing, I found myself cringing.

And that’s frustrating because look at this cast.

Leslie Mann, Anna Faris, Isla Fisher and Michelle Buteau are all very funny performers. These four women have demonstrated throughout their careers that they can take good comedic material and run with it. Putting them together should be comedy gold.

There are occasional flashes of what Spa Weekend could have been, particularly when the movie slows down and allows the women to simply interact with one another. Mann remains incredibly likeable, Faris has always been willing to completely commit to absurd comedy, Buteau brings plenty of personality, and Fisher certainly understands the assignment she’s been given. If Mel is supposed to be exhausting, Fisher succeeds.

Perhaps a little too well.

Mel is the kind of character who works better in smaller doses. The movie keeps turning up her recklessness until she becomes less entertaining and more irritating. There’s only so many times someone can create an unnecessary disaster before you start wondering why anyone would continue inviting this person anywhere.

There is a potentially interesting movie buried underneath all the chaos about friendship, getting older and realizing that the people who were perfect for you at one stage of your life may not necessarily fit into another. There are also moments of career dissatisfaction, relationships, and loneliness that hint at something more meaningful.

But Spa Weekend isn’t particularly interested in exploring those ideas for very long. There’s always another outrageous gag waiting around the corner.

That’s ultimately the biggest disappointment. Lucas and Moore have made this type of movie work before. They understand the appeal of watching relatively normal people get thrown into increasingly insane situations. But Spa Weekend feels like they’re going back to the same well without finding anything new at the bottom.

At 97 minutes, the movie doesn’t overstay its welcome, but even that relatively short runtime starts to feel long when so many of the jokes fail to land.

There will undoubtedly be an audience that enjoys watching four talented comedic actresses cut loose and behave badly for a weekend. I just wish they had better material to work with.

Spa Weekend wants desperately to be outrageous. It wants to be The Hangover for women. It wants audiences gasping and laughing at how far it’s willing to go.

Instead, it’s mostly recycled, over-the-top and, unfortunately, more cringy than funny.

Grade: C-