Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Kaitlyn Dever, Billie Lourd, Maxime Bouttier, Lucas Bravo, Genevieve Lemon
Intro:
… the epitome of light entertainment, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Younger audiences may struggle with connecting to the movie, but for people of a certain age it’s bound to be a crowd-pleaser.
Ol Parker’s latest romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise doesn’t colour outside the lines. The movie knows precisely what it is, a vehicle to put Hollywood megastars Julia Roberts and George Clooney in an exotic locale (in this case Australia’s Hamilton Island subbing for Bali) and have them trade comedic barbs until the entirely predictable ending.
Ticket to Paradise is made for an older audience who want to revel in Clooney and Roberts’ undeniable (and proven) screen chemistry in an unchallenging piece that will have them giggling, if not exactly having their heartstrings pulled.
Lily Cotton (Kaitlyn Dever) has just finished her law degree and she is the daughter of divorced parents David (George Clooney) and Georgia (Julia Roberts), whose biggest challenge is how to get the estranged and bickering pair to behave themselves while in the same room. The opening scenes of the movie show David and Georgia relating to friends how they ended up together after college and their point of view regarding the events is wildly different. Parker and co-writer Daniel Pipski let the brisk interchange between David and Georgia’s stories do a lot of heavy lifting for setting up their characters. Separating after only five years and the birth of their child, it’s been approximately twenty-years since the two were on speaking terms.
Lily loves both her parents, and they clearly adore her. When the exes are seated together at Lily’s graduation, they do their darndest to outdo each other in loudly heaping praise on her. Still, Lily takes this in her stride, aided by her college roommate and best friend, Wren (a fantastically funny Billie Lourd). A post-graduation holiday to Bali is planned by the pair and even while in the airport, David and Georgia bicker over what Lily should be doing in her time off (Georgia: have fun, David: Read up on law because Lily will be returning to a prestigious job). Wren is hungover and just wants everyone to not talk.
Once on the island, Lily meets local seaweed farmer, Gede (played charmingly by French-Indonesian actor Maxime Bouttier) and it is love at first sight. A little over a month in and Lily has decided to marry Gede and relocate to Bali permanently. The news sends David and Georgia into a tailspin because neither want their daughter to repeat the mistake they made by marrying directly after college. Both book tickets to paradise immediately, and wouldn’t you know it, they’re on the same plane and seated in the same row (with Australian actor Genevieve Lemon as Beth-Ann acting as a comic buffer between the warring pair).
The plane is flown by Georgia’s young and handsome boyfriend, Paul (Lucas Bravo), who Beth-Ann notes is a significant upgrade. David and Georgia exchange rapid-fire taunts at each other during the flight but one thing they agree on is that Lily must be dissuaded from presumably throwing away her life over a holiday romance. The pair settle on a plan to “Trojan Horse” Lily by pretending to support her decision but then find ways to undermine the romance. Being as competitive as they are, they even argue about whose idea the plan is. Parker lays the childish antics of David and Georgia on pretty thick, and it’s a testament to Clooney and Roberts’ immense talents that the couple’s behaviour comes off as amusing rather than potentially grating.
As far as plot goes, there really isn’t much of one. The audience knows where the movie is going and will strap in for the ride for Clooney and Roberts. Parker manages to just avoid some heavy cliches about a well-heeled American family looking down their noses at the Balinese locals by showing that Gede and his family are well-adjusted compared to the ridiculous Cottons. Dever’s Lily and Bouttier’s Gede may be a romantic subplot that is the impetus for Clooney and Roberts’ performances, but Parker and Pipski take their relationship seriously enough that the audience believes it is authentic and wonderful.
Buoyed by admirable supporting comic turns by Lourd and Bravo, Ticket to Paradise is a charming if unadventurous movie. Everyone who turns up will be there to see Roberts and Clooney play off each other, and if that’s their reason for buying a ticket they won’t be disappointed. There are some laugh out loud set pieces (ever want to see Clooney and Roberts jump around on a dance floor to House of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’ or see Clooney bitten by a dolphin?) and just enough emotional pay-off to make the film more than a farce.
Ticket to Paradise doesn’t reinvent the romcom wheel, it barely kicks the tyres, but it does exactly what it sets out to do, which is reunite two Hollywood titans and let them have a good time in a pretty place. Ultimately the movie is the epitome of light entertainment, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Younger audiences may struggle with connecting to the movie, but for people of a certain age it’s bound to be a crowd-pleaser.
