The movie is about four couples who head to a couples retreat for a weak as a couple’s vacation to have time to bond as spouses and as friends to address issues in their marriages. Patricia is an author married to Gavin and an architect, and the vacation was her idea. Terry, a pediatrician, is with Diane, who owns her practice. Angela, a salon owner and Marcus, a barber at her shop, are together, and the last couple is Mike and Sheila. They all go to the location with different marital problems, and Mike and Sheila break up for good. Other couples apart from Patricia and Gavin temporarily separate but later realize the value they have in their relationships and get back together. The movie highlights several interpersonal communication concepts that exist in society. Understanding them helps people communicate better and handle different situations, right.
Mike and Sheila are going to the couple’s vacation spot via flight, but when they board the plane, the passenger sitting next to Sheila stands up and complains to the flight attendant about the space he has as little. The flight attendant comes and tells Sheila that she would have to get off the plane because it is fully booked, and the policy is that large people should book two seats. She happened to have book the seats for Mike and her months ago and yet was not given any preference. However, Mike does not support her in the ordeal or offer to debunk with her; instead, he offers her gas money and tells her to drive the whole way. Mike and Sheila have an interpersonal relationship with one another because they are man and wife. A spouse relationship comes with standard practices; for instance, in this case, the husband is supposed to be supportive of their wife, but Mike casually put off Sheila with no compassion. The phenomenon is emotional violence towards Sheila (DeVito, 2016, p. 301). However, Sheila did not let it escalate into a verbal exchange or violence by complying and stepping down.
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Marcus and Angela are a couple and are traveling via train to the vacation spot where they will meet with their couple friends to have a vacation, which entails communicating with their spouses. However, on their trip, Angela is vocal about the way Marcus’ ex-wife talked to her, and Marcus did nothing. For an African American couple, such a misunderstanding is normal, but for other passengers on the train who were white seemed disturbed. It is because cultures are different and would determine whether to indulge or restrain from such a scenario (DeVito, 2016, p. 63). The passenger at the back voiced his concern, and Angela escalated the misunderstanding into a whole new level. All this time, Marcus was silent and would let out sarcastic remarks that would add to the misunderstanding instead of calming down the situation. This is a conflict that could easily be resolved if Marcus had an understanding of the conflict styles and use the knowledge of it to calm down the situation because, according to societal norms, private conflicts between spouses are best handled privately and not in public spaces. Resolving a conflict is all about having a conversation that both parties get a say in it, and communication of one’s views happens. The situation was a typical competing conflict style of I win you lose (DeVito, 2016, p. 312). Angela wants to win the argument, and Marcus does not want to give in though he is mostly silent. An ideal way to manage the conflict was for Marcus to take the upper hand and concede that it was not right for his ex-partner to talk to Angela like that to calm her down. This is setting the stage. Then assert that he would have a talk with the ex-partner later and urge Angela for them to have this conversation privately (DeVito, 2016, p. 314). Marcus would have adopted the accommodating – I lose you win style to diffuse the situation. Therefore, there was a communication breakdown in the conflict.
Sheila finally makes it close to the location for the couples retreat but gets lost only to meet Troy, who is the sheriff in the area who offers her a cell to sleep the night because she cannot get up the mountain due to some trees that had fallen and blocked the way. However, a light relationship seems to be developing between the two because the communication climate seems to be right (Adler et al., 2020). Troy and Sheila have just made the first contact in the relationship stage (DeVito, 2016 p. 248). After some involvement, the two share some intimacy that builds their relationship even further, ending up as married couples after Mike and Sheila divorce.
However, all the couples have gone through the relationship stages, and all have also gotten to the deterioration stage. Its only Mike’s and Sheila’s that could not be repaired and led to dissolution (DeVito, 2016 p. 251). In the end, the relationships that could be salvaged were salvaged, and those that could not end amicably, which is the way of society. It is normal for relationships to begin and others to end so long as they are amicable and avoid mot of the conflict and violence.
The movie highlighted the fact that communication is important in any form of relationship, whether at work or in a more intimate situation, as it helps avert conflict. Apart from the conflict, communication also averts all types of violence, whether verbal, non-verbal or physical. Conflict and violence are no tools that can be used to solve communication problems. Speaking out in the right environment at calm levels is shown in the movie to be the best way to communicate issues in a relationship especially if a lot is invested in the relationship.
Works Cited
DeVito, J. A. (2016). The Interpersonal Communication Book:15th Revised edition . Pearson.
Adler, R. B., Winder, C., Rosenfeld, L. B., & Proctor, R. F. (2020). Interplay: the process of interpersonal communication. Oxford University Press.
