It’s okay to enjoy bad films. We all need escapism, particularly in the dreary winter months when summer has well and truly passed, but the excitement of Christmas is still beyond reach. Major movie studios know exactly this and so, they release movies at this time of the year for those too scared to go see Halloween Ends. They transport us to faraway lands with white sand and crystal clear water, where rich white people get themselves into a series of predicaments that always ends with a wedding and a resolution. Ticket to Paradise is one such film. Christ, look at the title. It promises you a tropical escape, but it's vague enough to cater to any moviegoer. Reteaming the dynamic duo of George Clooney and Julia Roberts, this is the perfect movie to go see with your mother and two aunts—as I did.
Georgia (Roberts) and David (Clooney) Cotton are a divorced couple who can't stand the sight of each other. They don't ignore each other with icy stares—they resemble antagonistic siblings, always finding a new low to sink to in order to insult the other or come out on top. They reunite for their daughter Lily’s (Kaitlyn Dever) graduation, and see her off to Bali for three months with her friend, Wren (a criminally underused Billie Lourd). Two months later, they receive word that Lily will not be returning to the States to start a prosperous career as a lawyer as was planned. She is getting married to a local guy she just met and will live with him and his family in Bali. And sure enough, desperate times call for desperate measures. Georgia and David put their many, many differences aside to sabotage the wedding and make Lily see some sense. But they soon find out that maybe Lily is the only one in the family who is seeing things clearly.
Again, it is okay to enjoy movies like these. Movies catered to a certain audience with more of an eye on money than artistic integrity. But, there has to come a point when a line is drawn, and you can just acquiesce that a movie is bad. This is essentially a rom-com, but with more of a focus on family than romance. For those who think rom-com automatically means “bad,” well, I direct your attention to Bridget Jones’s Diary and When Harry Met Sally. Some rom-coms have some of the best, smartest, and wittiest scripts in all cinema. Charming humor that goes straight to the heart and makes you reeling for the lead two to end up together. Despite Roberts and Clooney’s best efforts, you’re not feeling this way as you’re watching the credits (and the bloopers) roll for Ticket to Paradise.
Ticket to Paradise really could have been produced in any year. Apart from the characters’ ways to communicate via phone etc. and a montage at the beginning of Lily and Wren’s social media posts, there’s no real indication that this is a movie of the 2020s. No reference to the social or political landscape of the world. Barely any pop culture references to place a certain zeitgeist. The movie is so far removed from the rest of the world that it creates a disconnect between itself and the audience. The only welcome sign of the times is the inclusion of a central character of color - Lily’s Indonesian fiancée, Gede (Maxime Bouttier). If this movie was made in the late 90s, you best believe Lily would have met a dashing Wasp boy from Connecticut who also happens to be holidaying in Bali at the exact same time!
Despite its faults, one thing is for certain: Julia Roberts and George Clooney are having the time of their lives and there has to be something said for that. So often we see big stars doing movies that pay well, but they see it as beneath them - and it’s obvious that they’re not even trying to immerse themselves in the project. Roberts and Clooney - three Oscars between them and monikers as two of the best actors working today - do not fall into this category. They give it their all. Whether it's Georgia being disgustingly cutesy with her younger pilot beau (Emily in Paris’s Lucas Bravo is undoubtedly the comedic highlight of the movie) or David getting hit by a CGI dolphin, the two legends are game.
Who gets caught in the wreck, sadly, is Kaitlyn Dever. Dever has proven to be an exciting part of young Hollywood with roles in Booksmart, Beautiful Boy, and her Emmy-nominated performance in Dopesick. Lily is a particularly one-note character who seems to only be there to drive the action between Clooney and Roberts. Although the entire plot is meant to be about the parents’ embracing that she is an adult who can think for herself, the script barely grants her any agency as a character. The scenes between her and Gede can become a bit too YA-leaning, with some pretty corny dialogue, but then Roberts and Clooney do a brilliant job of bringing the film back down to earth. Their ratty arguments and relentless cynicism cut through the sweetness of the movie like salt, and it’s exactly what we need when it starts to feel like the movie came out of Hallmark.
A quick word on the direction: This comes from Ol Parker who gave us Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. While not totally dissimilar to his most recent release, Parker fails to bring the same sense of worldliness and charm that he did with the Mamma Mia sequel. The camera work feels shaky at times in Ticket to Paradise, with close-up shots lingering a bit too long. Although there are some really gorgeous shots of the Bali islands, it all feels a bit too synthetic to become fully immersed in, unlike the Greek island of Mamma Mia which feels like a character itself. There is, quite literally, so much scenery to chew on, but Parker opts to focus on human real estate instead.
Look, Ticket to Paradise is your average, white people in the sun, rom-com. Is it fine cinema? No, but that's not the right lens to look through it with. But that doesn't mean that it gets to avoid all criticism. To see Clooney and Roberts team up again when they have demonstrated in the past (the Oceans movies and Money Monster) that they go together like rum and coke is a lot of fun, but it also makes it undeniably noticeable that they deserve better. I don't mean an Oscar-worthy dramatic biopic. But a rom-com with some nuance and wit. I can say with a lot of confidence that if it had actors that were even a smidgen less than Roberts and Clooney, the movie would be unwatchable. Ticket to Paradise, if anything, is an example of the importance of star power and how sometimes a lousy script can be swept aside for two old friends taking center stage once again. It kept my mother laughing, and it served as a nice lullaby as my two aunts dozed off - sometimes, bad movies create the best cinema experiences.
Rating: C-
Ticket to Paradise comes to theaters on October 21.