The Spa Weekend Review: The Movie That Will Make You Text the Group Chat Before the Credits Roll

When you’re invited to a movie screening, you’re never entirely sure what you’re walking into. A great cast and a funny trailer can still result in 97 minutes of politely smiling at jokes you wish were funnier, so I went into The Spa Weekend hopeful, but with no idea whether it would actually deliver. It did, and at one point I actually grunted with laughter. I don’t mean a little giggle. An actual noise came out of me. Thankfully, I wasn’t alone. Movie critics can be a tough audience, but the cinema absolutely bellowed with laughter throughout this one, with those brilliant moments where one joke would land, the entire room would erupt, and you’d almost miss the next line because everyone was still going.

The Spa Weekend has exactly the mix I want from this kind of comedy. It’s crass, ridiculous and completely willing to go there, but underneath all of that is something incredibly relatable about female friendship, getting older, needing a break and remembering that somewhere beneath the lunches, work, children, partners, washing and never-ending mental load, we are still actual human beings. Perhaps the biggest endorsement I can give it is that I walked out wanting to call my girlfriends and say, “Right. When are we booking our weekend away?”

What is The Spa Weekend about?

The premise is simple. Childhood best friends Jane, Coco and Sophie head away for a much-needed luxury girls’ getaway filled with the kind of pampering and relaxation most of us have been promising ourselves we’ll book “one day”. Then their trainwreck friend Mel turns up, and any hope of serenity rapidly disappears. Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, Anna Faris and Michelle Buteau lead the cast, and honestly, putting these four women together was always going to create some chaos.

The chemistry is what makes it work. They don’t feel like four actresses who have conveniently been placed together for a comedy. There is enough affection, frustration and history between the characters to make you recognise your own friendship group somewhere in there. You know the friend who organises everything, the one who brings the chaos, the one who says what everyone else is thinking and the friend you occasionally want to strangle but would defend to the death five minutes later. That’s the sweet spot the movie finds.

Is The Spa Weekend actually funny?

Yes, very. Coming from the directors of Bad Moms and the writers behind The Hangover, subtlety was probably never going to be the order of the day. The Spa Weekend isn’t afraid of crass humour, physical comedy or taking a situation several steps beyond where any sensible person would stop it. The best jokes aren’t funny simply because they’re outrageous, though. They work because somewhere underneath the absurdity there is usually something recognisable about friendships, relationships and the circus that adult life can become.

And while this is very much a movie about female friendship, it certainly isn’t a comedy only women will find funny. There were plenty of guys in our screening laughing just as loudly, so I wouldn’t pigeonhole this as purely a girls’ night movie. It works just as easily for date night, particularly if your shared sense of humour sits somewhere between inappropriate and completely ridiculous.

It made me realise we really do need to book the trip

This was actually what stayed with me once the laughter had stopped. I came out wanting to message my friends and book something, and I mean actually book it. Not talk about booking it, send another reel into the group chat saying, “This is us!” or declare that this will definitely be the year we finally organise a girls’ weekend, only to somehow find ourselves having exactly the same conversation twelve months later.

Somewhere along the way, particularly once you become a parent, taking time for yourself can start to feel like something that needs to be justified. There is always something else that needs doing and someone else who needs you. A weekend away can feel extravagant when really, sometimes, it’s simply time with the people who knew you before your life became quite so full. The movie reminded me that we need to take the me time, see our friends, laugh until we make embarrassing noises in public and live our own lives as well as managing everyone else’s. We need to remember that we’re humans, not just the people keeping the wheels turning, and for all its outrageous comedy, that may be the thing The Spa Weekend gets most right.

There’s more truth underneath the chaos than you might expect

The film doesn’t suddenly become a serious examination of female friendship, and thank goodness for that because we came to laugh, but the friendship underneath the comedy gives all the ridiculousness somewhere to land. Childhood friendships are particularly interesting because the people who knew us then can sometimes hold onto a version of us that no longer quite exists. Careers happen, relationships happen, children happen, priorities change and people change, yet there is something incredibly comforting about sitting with old friends and suddenly finding that person you were at 18, 25 or 30 is still in there somewhere.

The Spa Weekend plays with that without labouring the point. These women irritate one another, they have baggage, their lives aren’t identical and they don’t always understand one another. One of them is also quite literally capable of destroying the relaxing weekend everyone else desperately needed. Sounds about right for friendship, really, and that imperfect dynamic is much more relatable than watching four women whose relationships are polished to the point where you don’t believe any of them.

If you liked Bad Moms, will you like The Spa Weekend?

If Bad Moms hit the spot for you, I think The Spa Weekend is an easy yes. It has that same willingness to say the things women perhaps aren’t supposed to say and find humour in the gap between what adulthood is meant to look like and the absolute circus it sometimes becomes. You can also feel some of The Hangover DNA in the way one situation escalates into another and the weekend everyone thought they were having becomes something else entirely.

But this isn’t simply Bad Moms at a spa. The stage of life is different, and that’s important because the fantasy here isn’t necessarily getting wildly drunk and escaping responsibility. At the beginning, these women would probably just quite like some peace, a little pampering and a chance to finish a conversation. Frankly, I have never related to a movie premise more.

Should you see The Spa Weekend at the cinema?

I would, because comedy is one of those genres that genuinely benefits from being watched with other people. Laughter is contagious, and our screening was proof of that. This wasn’t the occasional polite chuckle from a few people scattered around the cinema; the room was roaring, and there were moments when the next joke was almost competing with the laughter from the last one. It’s the kind of movie where the atmosphere in the cinema becomes part of the fun.

Take your girlfriends, take your partner or take whichever friend shares your slightly questionable sense of humour. If you do make it a girls’ night, though, use the opportunity wisely: get dinner, have the wine and, while everyone is physically in the same place and nobody can escape, pull out the calendars and book the bloody weekend. The group chat is not the same as seeing your friends, and “we really need to do this” is definitely not the same as actually doing it.

The Parenthood360 verdict

The Spa Weekend is crass, chaotic, warm and genuinely funny. Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, Anna Faris and Michelle Buteau are a brilliant combination, and the film understands that the best female friendships aren’t necessarily neat, endlessly supportive or Instagram-perfect. They’re complicated, occasionally infuriating, full of history and often very, very funny.

The Spa Weekend isn’t going to solve the world’s problems, and thankfully it doesn’t try to. It gives you 97 minutes to laugh at someone else’s chaos, recognise a little of your own and remember how bloody good it feels to laugh with people you love. Sometimes that’s enough. Actually, sometimes that’s exactly what we need.

Starring: Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, Anna Faris, Michelle Buteau

SPA WEEKEND is in cinemas nationally on August 20.