I’ve become a huge Vince Vaughn fan over the years so when the opportunity came to check out his new flick Couples Retreat last night, I jumped at it. I liked what I saw in the trailer and once I was at the theater I screamed with laughter. The script was a little disjointed but what do you expect?
The only thing that really bothered me is how the lone black couple was portrayed. The man (Faizon Love) was grossly overweight, broke and had bad credit. His PYT was ghet-toe, 20 years old, worked at Foot Locker, was the only woman shown cursing and let it be known that she gets around with older men. I know it’s progress that a black couple was even cast in this movie for race was not relevant and I did not see a minority face during the 15 minutes worth of trailers of upcoming movies shown before Couples Retreat. And I’m not saying that every on-screen black couple has to be as idyllic as Cliff and Clair Huxtable or Barack and Michelle Obama, but it seems like there should be an in between, especially when the lone minority couple is featured so prominently and none of the three white couples shared the negative profile of Faizon and his lady (Kali Hawk). The only other black person with a speaking role was Faizon’s estranged on-screen wife (Tasha Smith), who has a small part near the end.
I have close friends of all races, in all shapes and sizes and whose credit ratings range from poor to outstanding with ethnicity not being a factor. I only wish that my diverse world was reflected more on the big screen. Or am I being too sensitive to this lack of balance? Did you see the movie? What did you think?
