Movie genres wax and wane over time in a way that can be borderline imperceptible. The Western did its slow fade through the 1960s, but it took a while to realize that it was heading into the sunset (and then, of course, it came back). On a less elevated level, I watched โSpa Weekendโ and realized that the genre itโs in โ the high-concept comedy with the concept in the title, the movie that puts out a vibe of โLook, Iโm crass and dumb and obvious! And thatโs why you like me!โ โย may now be entering its twilight zone.
Written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who made the brashly clever and likable โBad Momsโ (but were launched by their script for โThe Hangover,โ and in a way theyโre still writing it), โSpa Weekendโ is a comedy about four old friends who go on a deluxe spa getaway. The film has its minor-league version of a star cast (Leslie Mann, Anna Faris, Michelle Buteau, Isla Fisher), with Fisher cast against type as the Melissa McCarthy character โ a foul-mouthed British trainwreck in insanely loud clothing who becomes the filmโs bull in the aroma-therapy shop.
Itโs all very standard, and the idea of putting the satirical screws to the New Age elitism of wellness culture certainly has potential. But watching โSpa Weekend,โ you feel how tired and predictable the jokes are (itโs the script that needs a massage). And Iโm talking about the โwildโ jokes, like when the women take a raucous golf-cart ride through the spa grounds, or when a divorced couple work off their aggression by having a mud fight in a mud bath, or the moment when a session of โgoat yogaโ devolves โ inevitably โ into a Who let the goats out? free-for-all. Itโs โanarchicโ yet weirdly tame and expected. You watch these rote antics and think: Where are Barb and Star when you need them?
The four women are cardboard-cutout archetypes, played in amiable lightweight fashion. Thereโs Jane (Mann), a high-strung attorney and divorced single mother whose birthday weekend this is, and who is such an overscheduled control freak that she can only put a date with a man on her calendar three months in advance; Coco (Michelle Buteau), also divorced with two kids, whoโs presented as a walking fount of anger issues (though if you call her on it, sheโll get angry at you for reducing her to the โangry Black womanโ); Sophie (Anna Faris), a blonde mouse whoโs been the personal assistant to a tyrannical boss for 10 years; and Fisherโs bawdy, antic, disheveled Mel, who the other three canโt stand, but as the movie explains โ it becomes a central theme โ every female friend group needs one person the others secretly hate.
I had mild hopes for โSpa Weekendโ when it introduced the Solaris Eden Beach spa, a luxe white-on-white beachfront hotel that turns pampering into a form of exhibitionism. When Jane and her friends arrive at the front desk, theyโre offered a choice of champagne or hibiscus water, and the spaโs general manager is a guru named Shanti (Erika Keynatz) who glows with well-tended superiority. Then, of course, thereโs Kai (Adam Demos), the hot Aussie yoga instructor who makes instant eye contact with Jane (โCโmon, Magic Mike,โ says Mel, โletโs see your big ding-dong!โ). About 45 minutes in, Jane and Kai run into each at the otherwise empty hotel bar, and Jane explains that she can see right through the posh pretense of the spa treatments โ the spaced-out music and yoga thatโs just โstretching,โ the Goopy optics of it all. But itโs as if the movie had already seen through its own joke.ย ย ย
By all rights, Isla Fisherโs Mel should be the one making us laugh. Iโve always been a fan of this actor, and she gives a pinpoint performance as a dissolute narcissist whoโs like a more unhinged Bridget Jones. But Fisher, in a weird way, gives too grounded a performance. She doesnโt have that spark plug of insanity in her DNA. (We donโt feel her unconscious need to destroy.) Or maybe the lines just arenโt crazy enough. Frankly, I had the same problem with โThe Hangover,โ a movie I always thought was more prechewed than it pretended to be. And you wish โSpa Weekendโ found a way to give Leslie Mann, the filmโs straight-arrow center of gravity, a bit more of a spin.ย ย ย ย
โSpa Weekendโ is being distributed by Black Bear Pictures โ a good company, only this sort of thing used to be the province of major studios, and now itโs being relegated to the indie and streaming market. (See this monthโs โSuper Troopers 3.โ) Nothing wrong with that, of course. But itโs a sign that overly processed bad-behavior comedies like โSpa Weekendโ are a form thatโs running out of gas. What happens at the spa stays at the spa. But it might as well not, since weโve seen it before.
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