Spa Weekend is the latest project from Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, known for writing The Hangover and directing Bad Moms. The comedy stars an ensemble cast that includes Leslie Mann, Anna Faris, Isla Fisher and Michelle Bateau as four lifelong friends.
Set in LA, lawyer and single mom Jane (Mann), underappreciated personal assistant Sophie (Faris) and divorced Coco (Bateau) express a wish to escape and relax somewhere. In a direction similar to The Hangover, the characters come together to celebrate. But instead of the chaos of Vegas for a stag do, it is the serenity of a spa for Jane’s birthday—which is quickly upended when Mel (Fisher), the (unwanted) fourth friend of the ensemble, arrives unannounced.
Lucas and Moore’s film taps into the world of self-care, but the film is far more interested in the comedic elements of the girls’ weekend. Goat yoga, guided meditations, mud baths and massages are all on the table for parody and mischief. While the irony of wreaking havoc in a calming environment is not lost, the directors barely develop the story past one key character being the lightning rod for the storm while the other three leads actively try to avoid it. In this instance, Mel’s good intentions are ultimately dominated by her intrusive and careless nature, especially when she ruins guided meditation and causes property damage. Her uncontrollable character evokes a chaos that may sound fun but, in real life, would cause her to be blocked immediately.
As her actions drive the gang apart, their characters slowly become reduced to caricatures as the ‘weekend’ continues. Aside from Mel, Jane is the overworked one, Sophie is the shy one, and Coco gets the problematic stereotype of the angry one. As the characters fall into familiar patterns of (re)discovering love or inner confidence, the narrative sees them as clichés from the chick-flick manual, spending most of the film doing their own thing, rather than bringing out the collective girl power it had hoped for until the very last minute.
Yet the film reiterates that women need work or love to feel fulfilled. This becomes more evident when the film brings in its key love interests, yoga instructor Kai (Adam Demos) and Coco’s ex-husband Roger (Dominic Ona-Ariki). And predictably, Lucas and Moore’s screenplay, while simple, never gets out of first gear. Formula is its baseline as it plods along from chaos to chaos before wrapping its adventure in a rushed third act.
These one-dimensional characters result in inconsistent performances from its stars, all of whom are known for their work in comedy. Fisher is having a ball while Bateau offers a mild vulnerability. Mann and Faris, however, are not as engaging as their characters, treading on familiar territory as the respective reluctant romantic and the klutz. As female friendship comedies such as Bad Moms, Bridesmaids and Girls’ Trip have proven that this combination of characters works, Spa Weekend just becomes boring with little to no potential for development.
Predictability and unoriginality go hand-in-hand in Lucas and Moore’s star-powered comedy. Thanks to bad jokes and poor execution, Spa Weekend’s false allure of fun falls flat the moment the characters enter the spa.
Spa Weekend is out in UK cinemas on 21 August.
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Director: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Stars: Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, Michelle Bateau, Anna Faris, Dominic Ona-Ariki, Adam Demos
Runtime: 93 minutes
Country: USA
