Ticket to Paradise is one of the broad romantic comedies we have all seen before. You know the kind like 50 First Dates, Couples Retreat, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall where the characters interact on a tropical island and bicker back and forth where days on set feel like an actual fun vacation. Reuniting George Clooney and Julia Roberts for the fourth time (most notably in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 11), the screwball romantic comedy about a divorced married couple who travel to Bali to disrupt their daughter’s wedding engagement in exotic locales has all the ingredients of being a charming and amusing film. Two leads who still have great onscreen chemistry with a comedic and involving premise can only take the film so far due to its broad and pedestrian execution that comes short romance and laughs.
After a hilarious montage of couples describing each other’s features and flaws, we’re introduced to David (Clooney) and Georgia (Roberts), who have now been divorced for 25 years, have a daughter named Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) who is about to graduate from law school–and they endlessly bicker at each other as if they are still married. After being coerced to sit together at the gradation commencement even though they requested to sit as far away from each other as possible, their coincidental seating arrangements end up becoming a recurring gag throughout the film.
The biggest disappointment in the film is the writing. Clooney and Roberts are A-List actors who are undeniably charming and have proven before that they are radiant onscreen together. We have seen this before with Ocean’s 11 and 12, where they light up the screen with great banter and wit. They have also been collaborators before too in which Roberts appeared in Clooney’s impressive directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind that was scripted by Charlie Kaufman. Sadly, director and co-writer Ol Parker, along with co-writer Daniel Pipski, don’t do too much in the writing with these characters. Most of the jokes are redundant and grow tiresome as they mainly consist of Clooney and Roberts just pointing fingers at each other and bickering at each other, which isn’t even sitcom level funny. Parker and Pipski give Clooney and Roberts very little to work with and their onscreen chemistry doesn’t quite shine as you would hope. There is very little humor in the jokes, and during the post-credit scenes we see Clooney go off the script a little. Who knew what kind of direction the film could have taken had it taken a more unscripted approach?
Outside of their past tensions and infighting, David and Georgia are very ecstatic for Lily. Right on the crisp of graduation, she will be hired at a reputable law firm in the coming weeks. After spending years of studying and working hard, Lily ends up joining her best friend Wren (Billie Lourd) in Bali for a much-deserved post-grad getaway. Plans change once Lily encounters a local seaweed farmer around her age named Gede (Maxime Boulttier). Romantic sparks fly. Her and Wren are having the time of their lives living in Bali. They both decide just to reside there. It’s only a matter of time before Gede proposes to Lilly. Cut to two months later, we see David and George in shock after they get an email from Lilly inviting them to the wedding that is only a few days away.
Coincidently, David and George end up having to sit next to each other on the same plane. They decide to put their differences aside and both are very concerned that Lily is making a mistake in getting married at such a young age in a different country. During the flight, a subplot originates involving Lily’s younger boyfriend named Paul (Lucas Bravor), who just happens to be the airline pilot of the plane and is overly infatuated with her to the point that you can sense George is a little taken back by it.
Overall, Ticket to Paradise becomes a relentlessly bland and abysmally unfunny rom-com. We see the awkward cultural clash and many other clunky visual gags that involve Clooney getting bitten by a dolphin that feels like it belongs in a Kevin James film. There is other visual gags of Clooney and Roberts dancing to music as they play beer pong, which resorts to just being a parental gag as it embarrasses Lilly. While the writing conveys inevitable conclusions in its crowd-pleasing formulaic approach, Ticket to Paradise eventually stumbles elsewhere. The writing and execution are too flimsy. It unravels with some banter but not enough charm or wit between Roberts and Clooney that could have benefited with sharper writing and even improvisation skills. While Clooney and Roberts have certainly aged like fine wine, sadly, the film becomes a missed opportunity that never quite becomes the incarnate it aims to be.
Most likely won’t see it because it doesn’t fit my demographic
How dare you bring Forgetting Sarah Marshall into Russ specific review ;p I’m seeing it with my wife soon. I’ll have to come back and let you know what I thought afterwards.
If this is anything like Ocean’s 11, I’m not interested. I found Ocean’s 11 to be boring and over hyped and I feel the same about this movie.
I’m looking forward to seeing it. I love Kaitlyn Dever
I always go back to the story how it’s written and executed to a level where you can visualise the right actors for it. This type of film usually or story is usually difficult to cast the right actors when there’s a genre of comedy and drama mixed together.
I did not enjoy Ocean’s 11 and I’m not a complete fan of George Clooney. I am, however, a fan of Julia Roberts, therefore I’ll give this film a try.
This Romantic Comedy movie is a “yes” from me due to the star power of George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Kaitlyn Dever. This beach Island vacation movie was set in Bali but reportedly was filmed in and around the Coast of Queensland, Australia due to Covid restrictions as well as tax incentives by the Australian Federal Government and the Screen Queenland’s Production Attraction Strategy. The Australia location is known for it’s world class Beaches, Island Rainforest and proximity to The Great Barrier Reef. This film incorporates establishing shots of Bali, and Balinese wedding customs. It premieres this weekend in US Theaters, and received an uninspired reception from critics. The critics did mention that the outtakes as the credits roll, are a more lighthearted and fun spectacle. This is surprising to me, due to Universal Studios budget, and the undeniable chemistry between the lead actors. The score was composed by Scottish Composer Lorne Balfe, a contemporary of the world renowned film Composer Hans Zimmer. I am looking forward to seeing this.