Hallmark meets chaos / Isla Fisher carries it / rickety, but fun

#filmreviewhaiku

It's like Hallmark was asked to make Bridesmaids.

With their professional and family lives having seen them drift apart over the years, the recently divorced "Coco" (Michele Buteau) suggests to her friend "Sophie" (Anna Faris) that they take birthday girl "Jane" (Leslie Mann) for a spa weekend to celebrate with a degree of sedate style. The one thing they are agreed on is that they won't invite their fourth wheel - "Mel" (Isla Fisher) because, well she's just too much of a loose cannon. When they arrive at the beautiful spa resort of "Shanti" (Erika Heynatz) they look forward to a few days of mud, steam and maybe even an hookup with the hunky yoga trainer "Kai" (Adam Demos). Sadly, though, their secret plan didn't remain secret for very long as their other pal shows up unexpectedly and fairly soon their peace and tranquility - and everyone else's too - is trampled into the sand. What now ensues is all fairly predictable fayre with slapstick comedy, rampaging goats and the odd chunk of romance as chaos descends on the place and the depths of their friendships with each other are sorely tested. Will they come through it unscathed? No, this isn't good and from the start I kept expecting Anna Farris to turn into Goldie Hawn and for Heynatz to become Jane Seymour. Both Fisher and Buteau's characters are fairly unlikeable right from the start and the constant stream of unfunny and often quite vulgar Anglo-Saxon is a poor substitute for comedic writing. What's also quite curious about this drama is that it was written and directed by two men, too, but surely with extensive feminine interventions? It does settle down a bit after half an hour; it doesn't shy away from ridiculing the pretentiousness of the incense burning, kale-smoothie, brigade and it certainly gets better in the last fifteen minutes or so, but that's from a fairly low base and still doesn't really make this very good. It does remind us of just what we put up with by way of routine on a daily basis and that it does us no harm to let the badger loose every now and again, but the best of the comedy is in the trailers and if I'd been "Kai", I'd have run a mile. Late night Christmas television after a few too many mulled wines I'd say.