‘Vacation Friends’ is over the top but surprisingly endearing
20th Century Studios
“Vacation Friends” is repetitive, exhausting, and sluggishly paced. I enjoyed it anyway.
The reason isn’t complicated: This is a movie about four people spending a lot of time together, and I liked spending time with them too. Introverted Marcus (Lil Rel Howery) and Emily (Yvonne Orji) expect to spend their vacation in Mexico doing a variety of activities (whale watching, massages) that could be considered low-key. A problem with their room, however, leads to sudden extreme proximity, and a week-long bender, with Ron (John Cena) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner), whose unceasing enthusiasm might be a better fit with Marcus and Emily if it also didn’t constantly involve staring death in the face, smearing cocaine on its gums, and then jumping off a cliff.
There’s a better, darker movie here that would utilize the intensity of these couples’ connections to explore what comes out of someone when they’re on vacation and the value of those secrets for those who witness something supposedly out of character. But that movie is called “Spring Breakers.” Recognizing that enduring bonds come from reliability and not just sustained partying, “Vacation Friends” is extremely good-natured in its seesaw of Marcus and Emily continually being alarmed by Ron and Kyla and then won over by their good intentions. It really wouldn’t work at all if the characters weren’t so darn sweet. Cena’s presence can give Dwayne Johnson a challenge for the former wrestler to have the most charisma as an actor, and it’s great to see Hagner (“Search Party,” “Hits”) given a role of this magnitude. Their parts are far showier than their co-stars, but the ensemble blends effortlessly. Howery and Orji never come off as stiff or dull, only trying to wrangle the sometimes-challenging intangibles of interpersonal relationships and expectations that may not align when converting an unreal situation into everyday life.
I wish there weren’t so many accidental instances of taking drugs (this can be funny once, not on repeat), and performances aside I can’t say Ron and Kyla actually seem like real people. The presentation of Marcus’ staff (he runs a Chicago construction company) as blue-collar, heavy-drinking goofs is stereotypical and shallow. But there are a lot of real laughs here, and three relationships that feel genuine: both pairs separately, and together. That’s a lot of love and respect for a movie we’ll all forget before we finish this sent --
B-
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