Ethan (Duplass) and Sophie (Moss) are in marriage counseling for a variety of commonplace reasons: he cheated on her, they don't communicate well, they don't have sex anymore. They mourn their former "irreverent" selves, the selves who "did ecstasy at Lollapalooza." (That's as wild as they got.) Their relationship now consists of trying to re-capture the happiness they had in the past, with predictably hollow results. The marriage counselor (Ted Danson) suggests that they go on a "retreat" for the weekend. He has sent many couples to this place and they have all come back refreshed and renewed. Ethan and Sophie figure they have nothing to lose.
The "retreat" is a weekend alone in a big old house on a large property, complete with a pool and guest house. There are no other guests. There is no guru leading them through trust exercises. There is no Steve Carell in "Hope Springs." It is just Ethan and Sophie, hanging out, exploring the grounds.
Cinematographer Doug Emmett fills the screen with dark gloomy shadows, and strange points-of-view, the two characters seen through a doorjamb from an adjacent room, or through the windows from outside. These touches give a creepy horror-movie perspective to the point of view. Is something lurking out there for them? Are they being watched? Even the early marriage counseling scenes are filled with stark noir shadows on the wall and odd ominous angles. The commonplaces of Ethan and Sophie's boring marriage are made strange, eerie, in how they are filmed.
On their retreat, alone in the big house, Ethan and Sophie make dinner. They drink wine and smoke pot. They loosen up. The dynamic between Duplass and Moss has been tense and sad, and so their laughter brings with it relief, release, a sense that they are beginning to remember why they got together in the first place. That night, they crash in the guest house and have sex. But when Sophie mentions it to Ethan the next morning, he has no memory of it. Was he really that wasted?
Strange things keep happening, and these strange things seem to be emanating from the guest house. Ethan and Sophie, freaked out, flee the property, but then are drawn back, thinking maybe that their marriage counselor is on to something, that whatever this is, it is something they need to explore. Remember when they used to be open to new things?
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