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Spa Weekend review: This women-gone-wild comedy is a trip you shouldn’t bother taking
This film doesn't show any particular understanding of middle-aged women and instead resorts to cliches.
Black Bear Pictures
- Emma Simmonds
Published: Friday, 21 August 2026 at 5:00 am
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A star rating of 2 out of 5.
"I feel like I’m 25 again," squeals Jane (Leslie Mann) as she receives an improbably orgasmic hand massage and cops off with her hot yoga teacher in women-gone-wild comedy Spa Weekend. The men who brought you The Hangover and Bad Moms, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, take inspiration from their back catalogue as they follow a group of middle-aged friends bringing the Las Vegas party spirit to a relaxation retreat.
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Combining self-care, anarchic shenanigans and solidarity, Spa Weekend focuses on Mann’s single mum and lawyer, who reluctantly decides to celebrate her birthday by taking a lavish spa break with childhood besties Sophie and Coco (Anna Faris and Michelle Buteau), despite being too busy to function.
With the uptight and overly accommodating Sophie dealing with a pathetic man-baby of a boss, Toby (Felix Williamson), and Coco struggling to contain the anger issues which have prompted her separation from nice-guy husband Roger (Dominic Ona-Ariki), the trio are in desperate need of some time out.
Enter the fourth musketeer, Mel (Isla Fisher). Described ominously as a “maniac”, she’s made money from an online business that is “totally not a pyramid scheme”. The others had avoided inviting her along due to her history as a human wrecking ball, before Sophie felt bad and caved.
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True to form, the mouthy Mel mixes things up in every conceivable way: inviting Coco’s ex, getting Sophie fired, and sourcing a “Scarface amount of cocaine”. She also calls bullshit on every aspect of the spa experience, from guided meditations to goat yoga, to her friends’ embarrassment and the extreme irritation of the resort’s guru and general manager Shanti (Erika Heynatz). A pleasant distraction is provided by Adam Demos, playing the aforementioned yoga instructor Kai, who takes a shine to Jane.
Grown-ups behaving badly is tried and tested territory for Lucas and Moore (who wrote The Hangover and wrote and directed Bad Moms and A Bad Moms Christmas) and the self-care business is ripe for a ribbing, with its uneasy mix of spirituality and snobbery, while there’s something mildly exhilarating about these women running amok amidst the carefully cultivated and exorbitantly priced serenity.
However, it feels like a missed opportunity, with little in the way of sharp satire (The White Lotus, for example, does it a whole lot better), and the film wants to have its cake and eat it by simultaneously indulging in obscene amounts of relaxation/wealth porn, as the women swoon over their exclusive surroundings.
The narrative superficially explores the stress of the sandwich generation; though the women’s kids and elderly relatives barely feature, their wants and needs are an ever-present concern. If the film’s celebration of female friendship and strength is welcome, Spa Weekend doesn’t show any particular understanding of middle-aged women and the physical and mental challenges they face, instead resorting to cliches like lusting over younger men.
There are a handful of guilty laughs, while comic set pieces involving strippers, fist-fights and the theft of a golf cart keep things ticking along, although they pale in comparison to equivalent moments in the likes of Bridesmaids and Girls’ Trip.
Meanwhile, the absence of a decent script gives the actresses in question a mountain to climb. The reliably charismatic Mann fares best with the most fleshed-out role, her expressiveness and superb comic timing helping make the most out of scraps, with Buteau believable too. However, Fisher struggles with a crass and colossally unfunny character and Faris is too one-note.
Adding insult to injury, with their loose, easy laughs and visible cast chemistry, the outtakes that accompany the end credits give a sense of the film that might have been. As fun as this cinematic getaway might seem, it’s one trip you shouldn’t bother taking.
Spa Weekend is now showing in UK cinemas.
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Authors
Emma Simmonds
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