Couples Weekend

[00:00:03] This is a Bramble Jam Podcast Hi, I'm Bran and I love New Year's Eve slash New Year's Day movies I'm Dan and I despise New Year's Eve, New Year's Day movies I'm Alonzo and L.L. Bean is the thick man's friend And this is Deck Hallmark Podcast Deck The Hallmark, it's his podcast

[00:00:31] My friend's host is podcast We hope you like this jolly podcast All right, hi everyone How are we? It's great to be here today It's time for a holiday A holiday We're all going away for holiday We are With the twins Yeah, that's right

[00:01:01] Couples Weekend, everybody Couples Weekend This was a festival movie, right Alonzo? Yeah, South by Southwest I believe For reasons I don't know Sat around for a while And then just recently was made available On the demand On the demand Yes I mean, this has got some big Like, this is a The pedigree of the cast here Is Yeah You know, from all walks of Powerhouse ensemble

[00:01:30] That's exactly right Yes But it is more of a New Year's movie Than it is a Christmas movie But I think it's still festive Sure There's a gift exchange There's a gift exchange Some festive beverages Yeah Right Exactly Alonzo, how was your long Memorial Day weekend? Was it good? You know, it was unmemorable, I guess No, it was fun You celebrated a birthday Yes I did Well before that, yes

[00:02:00] No, we You know, we We had a family thing To go do You know what? Scratch that Reverse it Hey Alonzo What are you doing For your long Memorial Day weekend? Yeah, we'll get there What are you doing for it? You have a family thing to do Oh Yes Yes Yes Absolutely Because it's the 22nd It's not Yeah I was looking at my head I was thinking What are you talking about? Time traveling brand I was out of sorts though I don't know

[00:02:28] You're at the beach right now I'm at the beach right now We're using new tech How's it look? It looks amazing Yes, I don't know what day it is But it's great to be here Does anybody really know what time it is? No, no, I don't think we do Shall we dive in? Shall we dive in? Let's do it Couples Weekend originally premiered at a festival on June 8th, 2025 And it went a little something like this We meet Mitch and Melanie and their friends Debs and Josh

[00:02:56] They meet up for a little New Year's holiday at a cabin in the woods You see, Debs and Mitch are lifelong friends And they wake up early one day and head out for a hike in the woods But when a giant tree falls and almost hits them They decide to cut their hike short and head back But when they get back to the cabin They see Melanie and Josh

[00:03:25] A knock in boots Through the window Debs immediately wants to barge in and confront them But Mitch says, no Let's take time to process this And decide how we would like to approach a situation later So they go in They act like nothing happened Something that is much easier for Mitch than it is for Debs Ultimately, Debs confronts Josh about lying about something else

[00:03:52] When Melanie blurts out Then why didn't you tell them the truth about us if you're not a liar? We'll do it Mitch can't handle that this is now suddenly out in the open And goes to leave But he can't because they are snowed in They decide to split up with their respective spouses And talk through things Maybe gain a little clarity

[00:04:16] And we find out that Josh and Melanie both have slightly different perspectives on what happened And who actually made the first move and all that stuff So they all take a break from the situation Mitch finds a bottle of mystery liquor And when Mitch takes a drink He enters like a magical state of clarity He decides he's going to kiss Debs And is like

[00:04:46] We should be together Don't you think we should be together? And she's like Nah, dog Meanwhile, Josh and Melanie get into an argument Over who was the one that actually initiated the kiss Mitch calls his boss Tells him that he quits his job He starts dancing in the living room by himself He is truly out of his mind Josh finds him And Mitch offers Josh some of the mystery drink And after taking a drink He joins Mitch in this same magical state

[00:05:15] Melanie soon enters the room Also takes a drink They're all just going nuts And as it is approaching midnight Debs walks in and finally agrees to take a drink They all party They're all having a great time Debs even ends up kissing Mitch And then they all take turns sharing their deepest, darkest secrets And after partying together and sharing these secrets Everyone is now in this situation

[00:05:45] Where they can hear these truths And actually take them in And have conversations about them And Melanie admits to Mitch Stuff They're all admitting stuff So when Josh tells Mitch that he doesn't believe the thing about the fallen tree They all go out into the woods They find the fallen tree together And then they watch the sunrise together And after that

[00:06:13] Debs and Josh decide they're going to try to work things out And they leave Melanie decides that she is going to go on her own way While Mitch stays behind They are going to separate And then before Debs and Josh drives off Melanie leaves to go with her parents Debs leaves Mitch gives a copy of Debs gives Mitch a copy of her new manuscript For him to read

[00:06:44] As he's staying back in the cabin by himself For a while And that my friends was Couples Weekend We did it Yes we did Let's take a break We'll come back We'll break this movie down Here on Deck the Hallmark We're talking Couples Weekend

[00:07:14] Today here on Festive Friday It's time for us to break it down With four segments We're going to start with a hot take We're going to share exactly how you felt about this movie Alonzo I'll start with you Couples Weekend Is it a weekend you'd want to be a part of? It's a weekend I feel like I have been part of Not in real life so much But I feel like the shape of this movie Is one we've seen in a lot of indies Where like two couples go off together And uncomfortable truths are shared And everybody gets some kind of chemical alteration

[00:07:43] Over the course of it That makes more, you know, truths come out And then they have to figure out what's next But I will say for this kind of movie This is done pretty well You know, four really talented comedic performers I was a big fan of Ashley Park in Joyride She's so good And you know, obviously Girls 5 ever She's great in that Yes, totally You know, Alexander Daddario Was in this really terrific adaptation

[00:08:12] Of a Shirley Jackson thing called We've Always Lived in the Castle Okay Written by the same person who did Haunting of Hill House That's a cool little kind of gothic horror film Daveed Diggs, obviously From Hamilton and Josh Gad From Book of Mormon And, you know, Beauty and the Beast So they, I think, make this Probably better than it might have been otherwise I bought their conflicts and challenges

[00:08:41] And whether or not these relationships Were going to work out You know, ultimately It is familiar But I think it's solidly done I am unaware of this trope, I guess you could say Of couples going into a getaway And taking some sort of thing And then truth's coming up I don't think I care for it Because I didn't care for this Which is honestly astounding Because of how much talent there is

[00:09:10] There's obviously an abundance of talent On this screen And it may have something to do with the talent It may have something to do That I watched right after Ebony's Christmas Carol But there's an abundance Watched it before, actually Did we? Well, either way works To be honest with you Yep, true I don't know which is worse You knew it was coming Yes I do think that this I went into this

[00:09:39] And as I'm watching it For the first 15, 20 minutes I assumed someone was getting murdered It did have a vibe about it I gotta be honest It is a cabin in the woods after all I gotta be honest Disappointed no one got murdered I wish someone got murdered So this movie None of it Up until the point, honestly Where the magical elixir is consumed I'm tracking

[00:10:09] I'm like, okay, okay And then when I find out No murder And we're all just gonna be Woo! Woo! Time to share our truth I'm out at that point I don't care about it So maybe that's a fault That's my fault Of assuming And, but clearly Talent galore It is well made Again, we just saw Ebony's So it's just like Whatever What is well made? I don't know It's really tough But this, I think Is well made

[00:10:37] Even without the Ebony's Christmas Carol of it all So yeah I'm disappointed That I didn't like it But it might be my fault No, I It's hard to look at this movie And Ebony And say that they both Are bad movies But I kind of feel that way You know, the difference In what we do And what Alonzo does Is Alonzo is an actual journalist Who, there's a bar for Like, that needs to be cleared For it to be on a movie screen That Ebony doesn't have to clear You know what I mean? And so there is that

[00:11:07] So I like the idea Of the tree falling metaphor That they're going for here Which I don't know If you were in on that, Bram But this, you know The metaphor of If a tree falls in the forest Does it make a sound? You know, it's like This idea of shared Communal experiences Mattering because of The people around you And, go ahead No, as you say The original title Of this film actually was I think If a tree falls in the forest Really? Yeah Well, I mean It's very much on the nose We have an actual tree And then we have those That don't believe it happened

[00:11:37] Because they weren't there To experience it Whereas in Juxtapose that with The two outsiders Experiencing the affair And not Just by seeing it Not experiencing it And they have to Unpack all that I like all of that I just felt With an absolute Murderer's row Of a cast All five I mean Kevin Pollack Is such a great Character actor And his delivery Always gets me Every time Alexandra Daddario Is the only one

[00:12:06] Of these four That is a great actor But doesn't have Like the I couldn't think Of an immediate Comedic Chops performance I know she was in Baywatch But like I couldn't think of it But like these other three Like Ashley Park Is like comedy royalty I mean Oh yeah I mean Only Murders Beef Girls Five Eva Joy Like She's so funny And Josh Dad Daveed Diggs And all of them Like for me I felt like I was watching All these performers Trying to kind of Bend the movie To the will

[00:12:36] Of them Like I felt like Josh Dadd was really Doing Turning up the Josh Dadd And like I never felt like All four of them decided Let's play in the same Sandbox And make a movie That works And maybe that was just me But I was just Kind of like I felt like I was Watching force Kind of spinning plates That were ships Passing in the night It never really I didn't care deeply About any of the Relationships In any direction So the two couples The best friends

[00:13:06] Or the two dudes I didn't care about Any Any permutation Of those Enough To To have my heart Broken Or my heart Sore And the elixir Shows up In my opinion Far too late In this movie Like an hour in If you read The synopsis Of this movie The elixir Is in the synopsis But in reality It is like The last act Of this movie So So yeah I just kind of A downer for me I wanted to like it A lot more Than I really did And it is not bad In the same way

[00:13:35] Ebony's Christmas Carol Is bad Like Ebony Christmas Yeah It is bad In a much more Serviceable You can see What they were Trying to do And it is Professionally mounted Right Like it's a movie But it is not one That really worked For me at all One comedic thing You have seen Alexander Daddario In I think Is the first season Of The White Lotus Oh yeah You're right You're 100% right Yeah Yeah I mean She's super gifted I'm not I'm not No I hear what you're saying They all sort of

[00:14:05] Seem to be in their own film And I think Yeah you can You can cast The best people But if you haven't Like cast for chemistry Or you weren't making sure That they're Interacting in the right way Then yeah You do just sort of Wind up with these Four things bouncing I don't know This director I don't But I do feel She's got a TV TV writing background Okay Because I think That there's something To be said for When you see A movie done by a director Who has a Kind of a history You can tell All these people Are at the service Of the director Sure This movie never

[00:14:35] Feels like that It does feel more Like a TV episode Which that makes sense I guess It doesn't like You know And I hate to use Nolan But like You know That everyone There's in Service of the Nolan script That's going to Explain it You know what I mean Like you know Or like Catherine Bigelow Is a great example Like in those movies Like you forget That those actors Kind of have Personalities of their own Like it's Very much in service Of a Catherine Bigelow Project And this movie Feels like all of these Actors are like We're given a lot Of freedom And they all are Kind of trying to

[00:15:04] Pull it their way At least that's my take I could be wrong Alright Let's get to the feels Let's talk about What in this movie Give us feels Alonzo You know I I I I didn't exactly Always know Where this was Going to go Which I appreciated You know Like I Like some of the Revelations were Genuinely like Oh okay Like you know I didn't Didn't see them Going there Didn't see them You know Going with that And I I don't know I I think there Is some chemistry In terms of like

[00:15:33] I did buy Daddario and Gad Having been friends For a long time Like when he Brings up All the stuff From their past About where Where She was like Yeah I owe you one You know And just They all felt They You know The way that was Conveyed It felt like Those were things That actually Happened to these Two people You know And I I did kind of Care at the end Like you know What What couples Were going to Continue together And which ones Weren't So you know On that level

[00:16:03] At least It worked for me I did get a kick Out of the fact That Deb's character Smokes cigarettes While wearing A glove That's a funny To try to Conceal the smell Of the cigarette smoke So that no one Will know she Smokes cigarettes Which is just Funny Like That that would Be the thing That would really Conceal the smell And Josh Gad Just being like Yeah

[00:16:32] I have breath Like an ashtray But my hand That's right Yeah that's the thing I always go up to people When I smell their hands Just to see Like are you a Cigarism Munger Dan So I did find it Pretty funny That Josh Gad Tries no less Than six times And succeeds Most of them In making Drinking an Alcoholic beverage Funny It is Like The fact that he Finds the elixir In the end Makes sense Because the entire Movie Is him With a A different vessel

[00:17:02] Wine glass Wine bottle A cocktail glass A bottle of booze Like And it's always a bit It's always like It's empty Or like He chugs it too fast Or he spit It is He is doing Like A b-roll Of drinking Alcohol funny That's right He is He is You get a full Josh Gad audition tape Of how to drink Alcohol funny And He hits the He hits the note Every time Like it really is Something he's good at

[00:17:31] Is it a little bit Over like You're hitting the nail A little too hard On the foreshadowing Yeah But it is He's He's the guy to do it He's very capable So good for him Alright let's take a break We'll come back We'll get to the way We'll have the homework Here on Deck the homework We're back Hi everyone Welcome Back To Deck the homework I'm I'm Brant Yeah it's May 22nd I'm Dan That's right

[00:18:01] It's not Memorial Day yet Alonzo has a family thing Yes he has a family thing Hope you all have a good Good weekend Yeah happy We're actually We're actually Taking We're taking Memorial Day off This year We've We heard so many comments That we didn't really Respect Memorial Day So we We weren't going to But you know what That's why it's important To speak up And There you go And that's the only way To make change We're taking the day You know what I mean This is Friday now So Monday is not my problem That's right That's true Alright let's get to The wait what

[00:18:30] We'll start with you Alonzo What in this movie Made you go wait what I mean not a ton I think this movie is You know Establishes its lines And colors within them There's a moment where Debs and Melanie are at the grocery store And Melanie says That Josh Had told her that he's No longer going to eat meat And which is news to Debs And I'm like When did

[00:18:59] Josh and Melanie Have time to have a conversation Because They were otherwise occupied And then like They had to get ready For the two The other two To come back in the house It didn't seem like There was a lot of Like pillow talk I think that that Is really One of my only wait what's Is These two folks Are going under 45 minutes And I'm not here To get into a discussion About how long A particular activity took That's not what I'm here to do What I am here to do Is say

[00:19:28] We are to Are told to believe That these two Had no intention Of hooking up And it never happened Beforehand And it was an accident Because two people Got up to go to the bathroom At the same time And yet They're not They said it'll be 45 minutes And the tree falls They come back early So they've been gone Like a half hour And in that half hour We have had An accident Going to the bathroom A lovemaking session And And And A full discussion Of dietary restrictions

[00:19:58] All In a half hour And it isn't all In a half hour Because they catch them Mid Right Mid thing You know what I mean So like that is I I wish that we would have Had the two other characters Gone longer Sure For this to make any sense At all Because that is the biggest Weight one of the movie Also they both had Morning breath For the whole thing Which is That's right That's right Sure did Didn't bother them Apparently not Yeah this was their First time They said This had never Happened before

[00:20:27] Also I feel the need To come to the Defense of turmeric It gets a really bad Rap in this movie Oh it gets thrown Under the bus In this movie A spice that can be Used very deliciously And as a nutritional Supplement Excellent Very good for a lot Of things that Ail you So Team turmeric here Yeah I can't believe People are out Against turmeric In force But they are It's awful My first one That happens Very fast In this movie And it is that These two couples Arrive at the Exact same time To this cabin

[00:20:57] From general Different locations That's impressive Yeah man That's impressive To both show up At the same place At the same time And not plan Like it would be Impressive if you Planned it and it Happened Like a lot Has to go right You get all The same lights All everything I told you this But my family Goes to my Extended family My brother His kids And then my Parents And then my Wife and my Kids We all go to The beach A week a year As a family Every year And there have Been years Where we all Plan to be There at the Same time

[00:21:26] And in Decades Never once Have we been Anywhere close To all three All of us Pulling in At the same Never It's never And you're not Even dealing With snow That's right This is just a Trip down to the Beach We're all coming From very similar Places Ideal weather Yeah Ideal weather To ride somewhere At the same time I will just say This and this Is just For anybody Listening that's Writing a movie Or is casting A movie that Has been rare Or whatever Naming a character Josh that isn't Josh Gad

[00:21:56] Is unkind to Synopsis writers It's not nice to us Somebody has to Watch this movie And write a synopsis I'm seeing Josh Gad There's a character In the movie Named Josh That isn't Josh Gad That's mean It's mean spirited I feel like And I didn't Appreciate that And it really Made me work Really hard During this movie And I didn't Appreciate it Thank you for Your service Last one is At one point Afterwards They're all Arguing In the Kitchen And Josh Gad Does a bit With a butter Knife Where he

[00:22:25] Is showing That he's gonna Slash his throat But he goes Pretty hard With the butter Knife And I know Like butter Knives aren't Supposed to But he was Going hard Enough To wear The neck You just Don't want To mess With it This is Theater Background Josh Gad He was Playing for The back He really Was He didn't Know there Was a close Up happening He wanted To make sure That the person In the other Cabin across The way Could see The knife Pressing up Against the That's right I'm not Faking He didn't Go through The motions Again

[00:22:55] He knows How to Handle a prop He does Know how to Handle a prop There's no way Around it He brought That is as fake A knife as he Can get The extra Dull butter Knife I honestly At one point Thought the twist In this movie Was going to be All of these People are From a different Era Because Outside the Cabin we have Brand new cars Inside the cabin There are two Tube televisions

[00:23:24] What are they Doing with those Televisions You can't There's no Analog signal Anymore You can't even Use an antenna For a A tube Television Like And it's not Like they're There for An antique Like a part Of the whole Display This is the Centerpiece of The living room That is a Useless device Unless you Have a VCR You can't Get any TV channels On it You can't Put an HDMI cable Like They're going To set Pong up Yeah Yeah They're going To play Some Atari Of course That's what

[00:24:01] Cannot back Out of the Space Downhill In ice It spins It is BMW Supposed to Be the Ultimate Driving Machine Not Not if Couples Weekend Has anything To say About it They show A close Up of That logo Struggling Mightily In under An inch Of ice The ultimate Driving Machine Assuming You put Snow tires On That's Right The ultimate Driving Machine Unless you're Trying to Make a Movie About being Snowed In That's Exactly Right And

[00:24:31] Josh Gadd Wood Chopping Scene That wood's Already Chopped Like they Split It Wood That has Already Been Split Now Do I Need to Hear That it Needs To be Dry On the Inside Or Something Like Like When we See a Lot of Wood Chopping In Our Line Of Work And They Usually Have Pretty Giant The Outside bark Is Still On And They Split It These Are Already Split Clearly Already Split Splintered Pieces Of Wood That They're Splitting Further

[00:25:00] Why Is That Happening Maybe They Tried It With The Full Piece And Neither Of Them I Don't These Broadway Guys Don't Know From Wood Chopping They're Not Hallmark Dude Bring In The Pre Chopped Wood Kevin McGarry And Brennan Elliott And Jesse Hutch They're All right What's The Hallmark Is Where We Wonder What Could Have Been Maybe Happened Give Some Clarity Any Questions We Still Have What Are We Still Wondering About

[00:25:30] I'll Start With You Alonzo I'm Trying To He Look At Kevin Pollock The Owner Of The Cabin And The Owner Of Cabin Gave Him A Knowing Knot I So Yeah I Caught That We're Supposed To Extrapolate A

[00:26:00] Lot From That I Guess That Means Your Deposit Is Good For Another Week I See Where You're Coming From My I Mean My What The I I

[00:26:24] accustomed to certain certain things yeah he's a magical character the the elixir that we keep mentioning by the way the the kevin pollock explains at one point that this used to be a bootlegger's house and like hidden in the wall there's like all these bottles but you shouldn't drink them you know yeah yeah yeah whatever you say magical character whatever you say mine is uh mine is

[00:26:48] in fact kevin pollock like he was in mazel and he's in one of those taylor sheridan shows on paramount but like how do you get involved with this like what's the i know that a lot of the answer that is usually a paycheck but it seems as though pollock is comfortable just doing his tv gigs and not showing up in much these days i like it just seemed like almost too good an actor to be in that fifth cd i mean the woman who the woman who wrote and directed this like was a writer on the

[00:27:16] goldbergs was she was writer on shrinking so like i'm sure that at some point there are paths have crossed and she's like hey i can you come up for two days and i love this guy i just think he's a great actor he's so much fun so i i was happy to see him but that was mine as well but he could be a ghost i like could be a ghost he could be a ghost uh we did everybody congratulations to us we're back next week with a scottish christmas secret and when and when alanto asked me why i said

[00:27:48] scottish christmas secrets you know what and the last time of professor friday we went across the pond there to ireland or whatever you loved the movie remember that what was that what was that there was that scotch one that i like so maybe maybe we're out or maybe we're uh should get ready for more of that here we go it's a it's a secret all right coming back for that until then we're the first to wish you a merry christmas deck the hallmarks of bramble jam podcast produced by brandon gray and

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[00:28:44] here in the old studio thanks for listening or don't listen it's really up to you at this point it's at the end of the show i mean you're listening to me hi but here they come i promise they're coming yep here they are happy day