However, here we are in 2021 with a perfectly serviceable comedy about Black people and white people mixing harmoniously with no problems whatsoever, written by white men for a cast that's mostly Black.
It's natural to take comfort in the simple humor of "Vacation Friends" without pondering everything its subtext implies, the positive and the questionable.
The affection fueling the friendship Ron assumes that Marcus shares comes from a touching place that, again, has nothing do to with race. Indeed, revealing that detail underscores the idea that Ron only sees Marcus' beautiful spirit and solid character. That's lovely.
But that does not match the current social atmosphere, and it doesn't trust Cena's and Howery's abilities to speak honestly and humorously about their very obvious differences in terms of upbringing, class and yes, race, and how those traits impact the way the world sees and treats each of them. These actors are audience favorites, evidenced in the number of summer movies they've showed up in lately. They could pull this off. It's a shame nothing in the script gives them a chance to do so.
Instead, "Vacation Friends" holds in place the idyll of a comfortable fantasy predicated upon the thinking that if nobody acknowledges the very real prejudices Ron and Marcus would have to overcome in order to forge a true friendship, even if only for a moment, then nobody else does either.
No movie is supposed to solve all these problems, and certainly not a dumb, fun dog days of August comedy release. The simple pleasure of buddy comedies rest in the way they allow us to forget our problems for about two hours and simply laugh our asses off at, say, Cena's Ron and Howery's Marcus tripping balls in a field while a crunchy Beastie Boys track bounces in the background.
But in the ways I've mentioned, "Vacation Friends" joins a long list of such comedies that promote the fantasy that the racial strife between white people and Black people is a matter of perception, not reality.
In that view to be honest about the realities of the world these characters purport to travel and live in would be a downer. So instead of bringing candor and humor into this mix and trusting talented and able comic actors to handle such societal obstacles with grace and levity, they don't address them at all.
Instead what we get is a film with a mostly Black cast that assumes a level of racelessness as some white people imagine it – a wonderful comedy about Black and white friendships for people who see no color, and love an opportunity to ignore their troubles and retreat from it all.
