Review: ‘The Fabulous Four’ once again tests the bonds of frenemies in a tropical locale

In “The Fabulous Four,” a quartet of female friends in their golden years — played by a powerhouse group of beloved and lauded actors — head out on a vacation, where their longtime relationships and ingrained patterns will be challenged, resulting in cathartic personal growth. Wait a minute, didn’t I review this film two months ago? A year ago? Twice?

It was while reviewing “Summer Camp” back in May that I questioned the robust proliferation of these oh-so-familiar films (four older actresses, one vacation). The concept must be a lucrative one, but the formula isn’t just familiar — it’s cloned. How can they keep getting away with this?

“The Fabulous Four” is only surprising in that Diane Keaton is not in it. Susan Sarandon steps into the Keaton role as Lou, an uptight, career-driven surgeon with a penchant for pantsuits. She’s tricked into a trip by her old pals, the wacky, randy singer Alice (Megan Mullally) and cannabis farmer Kitty (Sheryl Lee Ralph). They want to repair a decades-long rift between Lou and Marilyn (Bette Midler), who used to be best friends until Marilyn snaked Lou’s boyfriend John and married him. Naturally, things have not been the same since then — for good reason, one would argue.

Marilyn is now widowed and has moved to Key West, where she intends to marry her new beau. With promises of six-toed Hemingway cats, Alice and Kitty lure Lou to the Floridian island and then suddenly spring it on her that the trip is in celebration of Marilyn’s wedding. Let the misunderstandings, mishaps and male strippers ensue.

There are also shroom trips, parasailing fiascos and TikTok interludes galore, cluttering up what could have been a rather pathos-rich tale about interpersonal betrayal. Sarandon beautifully sells Lou’s hurt with a palpable sorrow (this is an Oscar-winning actor, after all), but every time the film settles into this core conflict, it scuttles away to something silly, like Lou using a personal pleasure device as a slingshot on the street, or a series of profoundly irritating social media-style interstitials.

There’s also this group of younger, drunken revelers who latch onto the women during the plane ride. They’re there to be the wild, inebriated foil to the straight-laced Lou (a woman wound so tight she never takes off her complex cross-body purse, not even for the closing choreographed dance number), but they also prove to be the only functioning moral compass in the whole film. They blanch in horror at the story of Marilyn stealing Lou’s boyfriend — as they should, but as none of Lou’s friends do. “The Fabulous Four” never justifies why Lou and Marilyn should repair their friendship, just that they used to be friends. Sometimes friendships stay in the past for a reason.

Ralph proves to be a steady supporting presence, despite a confounding subplot concerning her devout Christian daughter and gay grandson. Mullally’s Alice is just there to be a good-time gal and stoner, gobbling gummies and whisking every comely waiter into a closet for a liaison. Midler is game for what her outlandish — and somewhat odious — character gets up to. Bruce Greenwood and Timothy V. Murphy report for duty as the age-appropriate hotties.

Director Jocelyn Moorhouse (“The Dressmaker”) has a long resumé, but she shoots this in the style in which every other one of these films has been filmed: flat, bright and colorful. Savannah, Ga., subs in for Key West, with the island itself captured only in b-roll, so the film doesn’t express the essence of the place.

There’s a version of this film, about this conflict, with the twists and turns that present themselves along the way, that could be quite compelling, and Sarandon’s performance shows us what could be. Which is why it’s so frustrating when it constantly swerves away from anything real. This fearsome foursome may be appealing, but the film is beyond formulaic, and far from fabulous.

Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.