Spa Weekend

Meant to be consumed with the same escapist, carefree mindset as a pampered wellness getaway with your gal pals amid a midlife crisis, Spa Weekend doesn’t enable you to enjoy those same benefits through the screen.

However, even if the specific target demographic can spiritually relate, this raunchy relationship comedy is more exhausting than endearing. Plus, it’s too shallow and superficial to offer much genuine insight into harried single motherhood.

Lifelong best friends Jane (Leslie Mann), Sophie (Anna Faris), and Coco (Michelle Buteau) need a break both personally and professionally. Between kids and exes and demanding jobs, they’re overworked and underappreciated.

So they hatch and plan for a luxury spa weekend to celebrate Jane’s birthday. “The last time I had a massage was my last mammogram,” Jane reasons.

Yet their relaxation at a tropical paradise crashes down, literally, with the arrival of Mel (Isla Fisher), their mutual childhood fourth wheel who they’ve since ostracized for being an obnoxious trainwreck. Apparently Sophie let the secret slip.

Mel proceeds to ratchet up the stress with cringeworthy antics that threaten the quartet with expulsion, arrest, and more. But they also find unlikely new opportunities. Cynical Jane becomes cozy with a hunky Australian yoga instructor (Adam Demos), Sophie is able to confront her domineering boss (Felix Williamson), and Coco reconsiders her feelings for her ex-husband (Dominic Ona-Ariki).

The film tries to coast on the freewheeling charisma and convincing camaraderie of its co-stars, with the lingering tension between Mel and her three besties revealing and resolving itself in mostly predictable fashion.

Still, the premise is too reliant on the women selectively withholding reasonable honesty or common sense. You can admire their feisty and rambunctious attitude but their behavior — outside of their collective loyalty to one another — comes off as selfish and destructive rather than sympathetic.

Despite some scattered big laughs, the screenplay by the directing tandem of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (Bad Moms) lacks the intended emotional depth. They’re more effective in poking fun at stuffy and pretentious upscale healing resorts, with sequences involving goat yoga and mud baths devolving into the expected mayhem.

Like its characters, Spa Weekend has a soft heart beneath its vulgar and abrasive surface, and its message of self-care and forgiveness has merit. Unfortunately, the film wears out its welcome far before the weekend is over.

Rated R, 98 minutes.