So much average

Fantastic!

Absolutely the worst movie.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This movie is so similar to 1983's The Big Chill—eight longtime friends gather for a weekend at a big, rich-person's Southern mansion (except whereas in The Big Chill, the eight were friends from college, here we mostly don't know how they're connected)—that I feel like it must be an homage by Clea Duvall. I like her as an actress, so I'd hate to believe that it's just a blatant ripoff. The eight cast members are even structured the same way: The Big Chill had seven friends in their early 30s convening, with the eighth being someone a decade younger; same here. Duvall has assembled a winning cast, although Melanie Lynskey's character is super annoying. The plot is pretty thin and far-fetched: You have to wonder why Jessie (Duvall's character) wouldn't have had this "you need to get out of your bad marriage" conversation directly and privately with her sister (the Cobie Smulders character). Lynskey's character is the driving force behind this intervention, and except for one small moment, you'd never even know Jessie and Ruby were sisters.It's wrapped up a little too tidily, too, with the imperiled married couple, who seem to actually despise each other, suddenly deciding to give it a go. Not a bad movie, not really a very good movie, either...I suppose faint praise, but...you could do worse?

Solid dramatic comedy about four sets of couples with their own quirks and problems, giving a good balanced outlook at relationships and the various ways in how they can work and work out.The cast is great and the comedy is subtle. The film does a good job of addressing multiple viewpoints and informing the audience of who each character is and what they are feeling. The best aspect is probably how then each defined character interacts with each other, as well as which ones don't. Often times you get the feeling more of watching a play than a movie (in a good way).Overall I recommend this film to people who like real life stories, if you are looking for lots of laugh out loud comedy, high stakes or extreme drama then you won't find it here. But a pleasant, thoughtful and enjoyable look at relationships as they mature is delivered in very fine fashion.

Imagine you are having a boring and otherwise quite normal married life. You decide to go on a vacation with a couple of your old friends who you've not seen in a long time. When you get there you find out that they are organizing an intervention to help you sort out your relationship troubles. Only one problem there. You realise that none of your friends have the moral ground to host this conversation. You'd probably go "Huh? why are we even doing this?" You'd probably get pretty mad at your friends. Maybe never even talk to to them again. On the surface this movie looks like a harmless romcom but the intentions that are driving the plot are questionable and hard to digest. Why in the world would your friends want you to get divorced? Oh, only if they are commitment phobic themselves... guess that makes sense, right? No! It's plain psychopathic.Many people in relationships struggle to stay sober. Some are just not capable of taking major decisions about life. Alcohol never solves that problem. Many people lose their life partners. They struggle to start new relationships. These were some profound aspects that The Intervention could've focused on but it instead squandered all the deep emotions as the plot rushes to complete the 2 days 3 nights schedule of messing up and making up while none of the relationships show any promise. Is that closer to reality than I think? Are interventions and sit downs even effective? Doubtful! For the sake of the story, we can agree that there is an inherent problem with modern relationships. We all want to be independent. So, the dynamics really don't work the way they used to in traditional marriages. Trusting someone and then settling down with them is all the more difficult. Then why to even pretend that you need anyone? The Intervention doesn't fight this hypocrisy nor does it stress on the value of building a family. Its like an unnecessary food for thought.Commitment phobia is more than just a matter of relationships. It is partly a social issue and and partly a psychological response to change. This movie however doesn't address that. Instead it jumps right onto the quarter-life crisis drama of married couples and couples not sure about marriage. It tends to strengthen the misconception that commitment issues are predominantly prevalent among the affluent. Well, we do see more marriages fail in higher income groups but that's not the point. Anyone can have commitment issues. Whether or not they are rich, successful or even ambitious for that matter. Our dependency on technology and social media is turning us into confused, prejudiced and superficial people. Movies like The Intervention push us further towards behaving immaturely. One pleasant surprise from the movie was Ben Schwartz's immaculate performance as someone grieving yet coping with it. His character Jack is the most normal of the bunch also the voice of reason. Such a long way from Jake and Amir days. Cobie Smulders does a fine job in making her performance convincing. Her character manages to take a stand that gives some closure to the audience. It was much needed because the intervention surely didn't work.

Imagine a world where Tyler Perry makes a movie with real actors, believable dialogue, actual adult behaviors, depth and characters you actually care about. Before you say anything, it's not a racial issue. It's a talent session with real adults of 2016.I only bring up Perry because this movie, white actors or not, felt similar in setting and conflicts and yet, 100x more real than the stage- turned-movie sh|t he's spewed out. Watch out! Adults swear. Oh, my goodness! People have sex outside of marriage. And don't look now! Alcohol can be consumed. People can discuss problems in a gorgeous, remote home, but still be real. Here, I felt the interactions were genuine. I know sometimes there were one-liners and some made me laugh, but they don't happen all the time in real-life like a lot of snappy indie films about "real-life" lead you to believe.Let's back up a bit. The Intervention is about a long-standing group of friends and relatives that vacation in an incredible home on certain weekends of the month. This holiday, however, is hosted and manipulated by one of the group to host an intervention for a married couple of the clan whose marriage appears to be on the rocks. Everyone (here and in your life) has flaws. So who can really tell others how to live? And there, folks, we have our movie.It's not perfect, but it was refreshing to feel real again. Not Hollywood glamourizing couples or having Oscar-bait tear-jerking scenes. It was quick, tight, nothing huge and something to enjoy for under 90 minutes.We all need an intervention. If you feel you don't, let me read you something I wrote about you before you entered the room…***Final thoughts: WOW! Never even got to my favorite part of this movie. What a great reunion of both Clea DuVall and Natasha Lyonne…both I loved in But, I'm a Cheerleader. Spoiler, sorry, in both movies I saw them in, they were a lesbian couple. It would be nice to think these were their same characters, but they weren't. Still, once I saw them both on screen, I squealed in delight. Additionally, in the closing credits, it was nice to see this was DuVall's passion project as I learned only then she was the Writer and Director in addition to one of the group of friends. So, it must've been her who made sure Natasha returned as her on screen love interest. Awww. Makes me smile……and want to rewatch But, I'm a Cheerleader for the twelfth or twentieth time! (I lost count. Love it!)