REVIEW: Spa Weekend really really isn't that bad!

Spa Weekend has taken a fair old pasting from the critics – which actually does it a massive favour.

Go along with expectations massively lowered, and you will start by thinking “This really isn’t that bad!” and end up thinking “It’s actually pretty good” – the tale of four life-long mates who go on a disastrous spa weekend which turns good as they learn loads of life lessons along the way.

Leslie Mann is Jane, the super-busy super-stressed lawyer who has refused to allow romance into her life, preferring to tell herself that she just hasn’t got the time. Guess what! It turns out that she has.

It’s her birthday, and two others from the childhood quartet persuade her that they all should head off to a mega-plush, mega-expensive spa for a couple of days.

The two are Michelle Buteau as Coco, a force of nature bursting with anger that her ex is dating again; and Anna Faris’s Sophie, the sweet-natured rather drippy one who is completely under the thumb of her appalling boss.

And it’s sweet Sophie who decides – much to the other two’s annoyance – to reunite the foursome by inviting “complete maniac” Mel (Isla Fisher) at the last minute – brash, unthinking and capable of unleashing chaos the moment she turns up, just as she did when they were girls.

And indeed chaos quickly ensues, Mel messing up every spa treatment they take together and eventually throwing a cocaine-fuelled party that really does get them in trouble.

But even as she does so, she’s actually showing the others the way – to reconnect and to find themselves again. Rather gushily at the end, it turns out that the film’s message is that everyone needs a disaster friend – just because life becomes so much more interesting whenever they are around.

And so it proves. Coco starts to hook up again with the ex-husband she really ought to be still with, and Jane succumbs to the impossible good looks and very easy charm of super-hot yoga teacher Kai (Adam Demos).

Maybe it does get a little over-sentimental towards the end, but what remains as the jokey credits roll is the sheer warm-heartedness of it all. The characters in their vastly differing ways are endearing in a film which wins you over in the end.

People are unfavourably comparing it to Bridesmaids, and absolutely Spa Weekend isn’t remotely in the same league – but that’s not to say it isn’t fun, funny and perfectly watchable. It’s all three – and surprisingly enjoyable.