LOVE ON RETREAT

Good news for family movie night: this one is easy to say yes to. UPtv's romantic comedy is well-written, funny, and carried by real chemistry between its two leads — the kind of chemistry that makes you laugh right along with the characters. When it works, it works.

There's a pro-family heart here, too. Nate comes to want a closer bond with his own sister and starts thinking he'd like to settle down and start a family. That's the film's quiet center: slowing down, valuing people over the grind, finding a better balance between life and work.

The one caution is small but real. There's no faith content, and the story leans on comical talk of becoming more "zen," plus three brief morning yoga-stretching scenes during the retreat. None of it is heavy — but if that's something you'd want to talk over with younger children, now you know. For most families, this is a warm, clean watch worth turning on.

Jenny Lee is overworked and underappreciated, juggling life as personal assistant and social media manager to her demanding boss, Gwen. When Gwen decides to reinvent her makeup company as a wellness brand, she hands Jenny an unexpected assignment: team up with her adventure-seeking brother, Nate, to plan activities for the company's annual retreat in Clearwater, Florida.

Jenny wants the new social media team lead — but she'll have to compete for it, and Gwen insists she first learn a little work-life balance from Nate. Sparks start to fly. What Jenny doesn't know is that Nate is hiding something about her rival for the job.

Three stars, and they're earned in the writing and the casting. The script is funny and sharp — from Gwen's penchant for sour green health smoothies (lemon and pepper) to the running gag of Jenny insisting she can "go with the flow." The comic setup that opens the film, with a company decision accidentally livestreamed to unhappy customers, lands the tone right away.

But the real engine is Ansley Gordon and Jonathan Stoddard as Jenny and Nate. Their chemistry is warm and easy; when they share a laugh, you do too. That's the difference between a forgettable rom-com and a genuinely enjoyable one, and it's why this rises above the pack of its genre.

At heart, this is a light, moral, pro-family story. It celebrates settling down, starting a family, and staying close with the people you love — Jenny's good relationship with her mother and sister inspires Nate to want the same with his own sister. It gently pushes back against the stressed-out workaholic life, arguing for rest, spontaneity, and simply enjoying another person's company. Those are instincts a Christian can affirm.

Where discernment comes in is the film's language of "zen." The healthier balance Jenny needs is framed through talk of becoming more "zen," letting Nate "guide you to your zen," and going with "the flow" — a philosophy Nate himself can't really define. It's played for laughs and never presented as a religion, but it borrows a spiritual vocabulary that isn't a Christian one, and the film offers no faith content of its own. Add three brief morning yoga-stretching scenes, and you have a movie whose good longing — rest, balance, connection — reaches for the wrong well to fill it.

Scripture names that longing and answers it plainly. The rest Jenny is chasing isn't found in "the flow" but in a Person: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

This is the kind of easy, warm-hearted comedy that makes for a pleasant evening — funny, clean, and built on a pro-family message you can get behind. Just keep an eye on the "zen" talk and the yoga scenes if you're watching with little ones, and use them as a chance to talk. Our verdict stands: worth watching.