The Four Seasons (review)

Published by Mason Oldridge, 14 May 2025

CONTAINS SPOILERS!

Tina Fey creates, produces, writes and leads on this modern retelling of the 1981 film.

A friendship group of three couples: Jack and Kate; Nick and Anne; Danny and Claude find their quarterly vacations (one in each season) rocked when Nick announces he is leaving Anne and finds himself a younger model.

Ginny is presented as ‘the other woman’ and a midlife crisis for Nick, despite him claiming to be happier than ever. Nick’s decisions are disapproved of by the group, though this seems unfair as Anne is seen to be a boring and distant wife in spite of Nick’s best efforts and his relationship with Ginny sees him experience the excitement he craved and proves to be real love. Furthermore, the group are unhappy with Ginny’s tropical eco resort, even though the place is stunning and offers them a new experience. However, it is nice to see Steve Carrell in a more serious role and demonstrate his acting talent can go beyond comedy.

There’s enough deviation from the original to justify a remake, though unfortunately, this 21st century adaptation touches on being woke. One of the couples is swapped out for an interracial same-sex pairing. Ginny’s sober and vegan friends can be excused as this serves the purpose of seeing Nick struggle to fit in, though Danny’s open relationship with Claude, engagement in a casual threesome and carefree approach to taking cocaine going relatively unmentioned is a little unsettling.

While the premise sounds promising, the drama primarily stems from conflict within the couples, often arising over minor things that generally wouldn’t put a dent in long-term marriages, showing the characters to be oversensitive and not reflective of reality.

However, Nick’s sudden death comes as a shock and the ending in which Ginny is revealed to be pregnant leaves it open for another season.

There may be some comedic moments sprinkled in, notably Claude’s attempt to find out if Terry was a past lover, and it is easy-watching, but ultimately what we are left with is a show of middle-aged couples unnecessarily bickering.

6/10