ticket to paradise movie review guardian

Ticket to Paradise review – Julia Roberts and George Clooney try their best as bickering divorcees

Ol Parker’s superstar vehicle ​has classic Hollywood screwball aspirations but winds up resembling a glossy corporate video

O ne person’s paradise is another’s circle of hell, particularly if that person has an aversion to rich American tourists and movies that resemble glossy corporate videos. Such, sadly, is the case with Ol Parker’s Ticket to Paradise , which sends Julia Roberts and George Clooney to Bali where it proceeds to pose them beside the swimming pools and flower beds of a luxury island resort. One assumes that everybody involved had a fabulous time; the production amounts to a lavish paid vacation. How the rest of us benefit is anyone’s guess.

Naturally the film is at pains to conceal its hand, merrily insisting that the protagonists are actually in Bali under duress and would really rather be doing anything other than guzzling cocktails and cavorting with dolphins. That’s because Clooney and Roberts play bickering divorcees, ostensibly on a mission to sabotage their daughter’s betrothal to a local seaweed farmer. But they’re kidding nobody, perhaps not even themselves, since the script makes it clear that these two are secretly still in love and that the upcoming wedding is not the real romance here. The course of true love rarely did run smooth – except in this instance, when it could be travelling on greased rails.

Hold your nose and squint your eyes and you have an inkling of what Ticket to Paradise dearly wants to be: an old-school Hollywood screwball in the vein of The Awful Truth or My Favourite Wife . Maybe Cary Grant and Irene Dunne could have made this fly, although even they may have required more grit, more rigour and a director less easily seduced by every white sandy beach and golden sunset that he sees. Clooney and Roberts try their best but they’re finally not much more than decoration themselves, the filmic equivalent of plastic figurines on a cake.

In cinemas on 20 September

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Ticket to Paradise

Watching “Ticket to Paradise,” one can’t help but think of the famous James Stewart line from 1940’s “The Philadelphia Story.” It goes, “The prettiest sight in this fine, pretty world is the privileged class enjoying its privileges.”

To be clear, the privileged class in Ol Parker ’s frustratingly unexceptional rom-com doesn’t only consist of the story’s chief characters: successful architects, art dealers, and recent grads of a fancy college, with pockets deep enough to afford an extended luxury vacation in Bali. In this specific case, it also consists of two bona fide movie stars— George Clooney and Julia Roberts (you might have heard of them here and there)—having a ball with the well-earned privileges of their status as the-last-of-their-kind Hollywood superstars, while bickering their way through some bitter zingers and sarcastic gotchas.

In that regard, it certainly is a pretty sight, to witness two gorgeous, forever-charismatic silver screen royals unite against a breathtaking tropical backdrop (and in frothy promotional videos), with their gracefully aging visages front and center before the rest of us mortals. Sadly though, the loose link between “Ticket to Paradise” and George Cukor ’s screwball classic stop right there, at that aforementioned quote. And you should blame it on a dispiriting script that relies too heavily on its A-list actors’ magnetic presence alone, instead of bothering with a good story that we can root for.

So let’s jump to another quote from another film. At this stage, imagine this die-hard romantic-comedy devotee, throwing her jazz hands in the air and yelling like the late William Hurt in “ A History of Violence ”: “How do you f**k that up?” Indeed, how on earth do the effortless charms of Roberts and Clooney not yield the kind of rom-com we used to routinely get in the ‘90s? The issue is the second romantic tale that unfolds around them, one that doesn’t hit a single believable note. It belongs to Lily (a delightful Kaitlyn Dever in an underwritten part), who is the abovesaid college graduate on her way to a Bali vacation, with her fun and sexually very active female sidekick, Wren ( Billie Lourd ), and an invitation to join a top-shelf law firm on her return.

Soon enough, Lily decides to get married to the handsome seaweed farmer Gede ( Maxime Bouttier ) she’s somehow rapidly fallen in love with, after the laziest meet-cute sequence imaginable. (It’s more appropriate to call that scene just plain meet and drop the cute entirely.) So instead of enjoying her time with Wren, having some wild nights out, and returning home for the bright future that awaits—you know, like any intelligent young woman of her caliber would do—Lily dedicates her entire being to Gede. There is of course nothing wrong with love at first sight in life or in movies, the kind that this critic is shamelessly in favor of, especially in cinematic contexts. But to make the massive life decision of marriage and deciding to stay in Bali for it on a whim? Even the rugged ice harvester Kristoff of “ Frozen ” laughed at this idea: “You mean to tell me you got engaged to someone you just met that day?” And that was a Disney movie in a 19 th Century setting.

Objectively speaking, Lily doesn’t decide on the marriage that day exactly. But the film is so lacking in building the couple’s romance and chemistry that it feels like a same-day verdict. What co-writers Parker and Daniel Pipski instead do is use Lily’s storyline as an excuse to bring Clooney’s David and Roberts’ Georgia together, Lily’s parents and each other’s exes that hate one another. But the duty calls and the duo embarks on a mission to Bali to end this ridiculous fling as a pair of responsible parents.

In fairness, “Ticket to Paradise” earns some goodwill during the David-Georgia scenes and gives the two some sharp moments of squabble, several of which the film’s trailer unfortunately spoils. But the ex-couple’s sexual tension and natural ease at hating each other earn the admission price, even when the momentary bliss we feel in their presence fades away with Lily and Gede reappearing frequently and a present-day romantic interest of Georgia (played by Lucas Bravo ) taking up too much time. It would have been one thing if “Ticket to Paradise” spent some real time thinking through the young fiancés, helping us understand what makes them interesting and right for each other. But in the aftermath, you’ll be shocked at how little you’ll learn about either, apart from their vast affection for the locale they often call beautiful. Well, of course, it is beautiful because what we see is mostly a luxury resort, a fact that makes the “I understand why she likes it here” quote from the parents painfully funny when they show empathy towards Lily’s decision to stay. Doesn’t everyone like a luxury resort?

We do get to see some things outside of the resort, like the lovely grounds of Gede’s supportive family and a pair of touristic sites. But “Ticket to Paradise” seems oddly disinterested in any family dynamics or anything that has to do with Bali, save for a couple of nuptial traditions cartoonishly represented. In the world of this film, everything is background noise and an item on a list of excuses to bring George and Julia together. The saddest casualty of this disposition is Wren. But with her P.J. Soles vibes, Billie Lourd still runs with it enchantingly, committing the cardinal sin of being far more memorable than the bride herself. Perhaps in revenge, the film periodically forgets about her existence.

Bless the old-school stars Roberts and Clooney for elevating this lackluster mélange and in certain instances, even making you forget about the non-sensical film that surrounds them. But that’s hardly enough, especially if you are hoping for a homecoming for the rom-coms of yore.

In theaters today.

Tomris Laffly

Tomris Laffly is a freelance film writer and critic based in New York. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), she regularly contributes to  RogerEbert.com , Variety and Time Out New York, with bylines in Filmmaker Magazine, Film Journal International, Vulture, The Playlist and The Wrap, among other outlets.

• Julia Roberts as Georgia
• George Clooney as David
• Kaitlyn Dever as Lily
• Maxime Bouttier as Gede
• Billie Lourd as Wren
• Lucas Bravo as Paul
• Daniel Pipski
• Lorne Balfe

Cinematographer

• Ole Bratt Birkeland
• Peter Lambert

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‘Ticket to Paradise’ Review: Julia Roberts and George Clooney Contemplate a Second Chance at Love in an Old-Fashioned Rom-Com

Star power and glossy visuals save the day in a slender piece of silliness set in Bali.

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Taking a basic cue from the “Philadelphia Story” school of comedies about divorced couples giving it another shot, director Ol Parker (“Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” writer of “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) and co-writer Daniel Pipski position David (Clooney) and Georgia (Roberts) as a husband and wife that had it all for five brief years. That was before the lakeside house David built for them burnt to the ground and their happiness went up in smoke with it.

Complicating matters is the unexpected arrival of Georgia’s younger boyfriend, Paul (a thankless role for “Emily in Paris” star Lucas Bravo), an airline pilot. An awkward type who practically worships Georgia, the handsome flyboy unsurprisingly proposes marriage just when the plot demands another distraction to keep David and Georgia apart until rom-com convention determines they’re ready to start looking at each other with new and besotted eyes. 

There’s plenty of zingy repartee in early sequences showing the cantankerous divorcees declaring a truce in order to prevent Lily making what they’re certain will be a huge mistake. Naturally that’s before they’ve even met the hubby-in-waiting, but that’s beside the point and nothing less than sabotaging the nuptials will suffice in such an emergency.

Central to the appeal of rom-coms is the fact that everyone can guess the ending. Their success depends on the timing and execution of funny quips and situations en route to familiar and comforting affirmations of love and romance. After getting off to a promising start, “Ticket to Paradise” never exactly nosedives — that would be just about impossible with Clooney and Roberts in the frame — but often struggles to make the most of a setup that seems ripe for the comic misunderstandings, zany shenanigans and crossed wires that underpin this genre.

Whether David and Georgia are enacting their pretty dumb plans to steal the wedding rings and sow doubt in Gede’s mind, or engineering travel and transport mishaps that will throw arrangements into chaos, the film moves along well enough but rarely hits comic high notes or gathers the momentum to sweep audiences up in the mayhem. David’s unfortunate encounter with a dolphin, or a hotel room switcheroo after Paul’s sudden arrival, are further examples of moments that could have been fashioned into laugh riots but end up as gently amusing instead.

When Parker gets his groove on, the picture rocks, such as the sequence in which Clooney and Roberts bust so-bad-they’re-good dance moves to C+C Music Factory’s ’90s floor-filler “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” at a bar after one too many beer pong games. That’s about as raunchy and wild as it gets in a very PG-13 picture that never even suggests anyone’s having sex before — or even after — marriage.

It’s also good to see Balinese culture and days-long wedding rituals being accurately and respectfully depicted, as the final moment of romantic truth comes closer for the young couple and the parents of the bride-to-be. Filmed primarily in the Whitsunday Islands off northern Australia owing to Covid-19 restrictions making location shooting in Bali impossible, “Ticket” is truly given the look of paradise in the beautifully polished widescreen images of DP Ole Bratt Birkeland (“Judy”). The Aussie duo of production designer Owen Paterson (“The Matrix”) and costumer Lizzy Gardiner (“The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”) also make fine contributions toward creating of a place that seems a million miles away from all the worries of the world. For a slightly overlong 104 minutes, that’s a place many viewers will be happy enough to visit.

Reviewed at Event Cinemas George St., Sydney, Sept. 13, 2022. Running time: 104 MIN.

• Production: A Universal Pictures release and presentation of a Working Title production in association with Smokehouse, Red Om Films. Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Sarah Harvey, Deborah Balderstone. Executive producers: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Julia Roberts, Lisa Roberts Gillan, Marisa Yeres Gill, Amelia Granger, Sarah-Jane Robinson, Sam Thompson, Jennifer Cornwell.
• Crew: Director: Ol Parker. Screenplay: Parker, Daniel Pipski. Camera: Ole Bratt Birkeland. Editor: Peter Lambert. Music: Lorne Balfe.
• With: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Kaitlyn Dever, Billie Lourd, Maxime Bouttier, Lucas Bravo, Cyntia Dharmayanti, Genevieve Lemon, Ilma Nurfauzia, Agung Pindha, Ifa Barry, Dorian Djoudi, Romy Poulier, Charles Allen, Francis McMahon, Sean Lynch, Arielle Carver-O'Neill (English, Balinese dialogue)
• Music By: Lorne Balfe

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Ticket to Paradise review: Julia Roberts and George Clooney’s first romcom together is a screwball joy

The film immediately recalls the tempestuous relationship roberts and clooney shared as the romantic leads of the ocean’s eleven films, article bookmarked.

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Dir: Ol Parker. Starring: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Kaitlyn Dever, Maxime Bouttier, Billie Lourd, Lucas Bravo. 12A, 104 minutes.

It’s a joy to watch Julia Roberts and George Clooney fall in love. It’s an even greater joy to watch them bicker. As embittered exes in Ticket to Paradise , flying to Bali in order to stop the whirlwind nuptials of their daughter ( Kaitlyn Dever ) to a local seaweed farmer (Maxime Bouttier), the duo have been provided a full buffet of snappish asides. They’re heirs to that great screwball tradition. Think back to Claudette Colbert, hitching a car ride with a coquettish flash of the leg in order to tease Clarke Gable in It Happened One Night . Or to Cary Grant at wit’s end in the face of Katharine Hepburn’s scatterbrained antics in Bringing Up Baby .

Here, when Georgia (Roberts) and David (Clooney) are – incidentally – sat next to each other at their daughter’s graduation, they tussle over armrests. When they’re – again, incidentally – booked together on the plane over, they lock themselves into a death grip while riding out a patch of rough turbulence. And, when they find out their hotel rooms adjoin – at this point, the coincidences seem a little suspicious – they immediately launch into an argument over David’s thunderous snores.

Ticket to Paradise immediately recalls the tempestuous relationship Roberts and Clooney shared as the romantic leads of the Ocean’s Eleven films. Though they’ve racked up a fair amount of screen time together, including in 2016’s Money Monster , this is their first genuine romantic comedy as a pair. That it works is largely because their methods haven’t changed. Aside from the joke in which a dolphin makes a B-line for David’s crotch (he later claims it’s a leg injury, but the evidence speaks for itself), and some drunken boomer dancing, there’s very little here that’s gurning or goofy.

The draw of a Roberts/Clooney vehicle, then, is the poker game of words played by two people who’ve always carried with them an air of security. They’re the appointed adults in the room, so it doesn’t really matter how ferociously they fight – you know they’re sensible enough never to dig their claws in so deep that it draws blood. Matters will always be settled. And love, inevitably, will blossom.

Director Ol Parker’s job is to simply paint around the two, in bright but soothing shades. He’s cast the film in the same mould as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018). The film presents Bali as a postcard-ready fantasy that’ll have eager romantics booking flights. But Parker also doesn't forget that it's a real place, with real people living in it. The locals – including Bouttier's Gede and his father, Agung Pindha's dryly humorous Wayan – are key to the story.

Parker’s script, co-written with Daniel Pipski, is far more sentimental than it is humorous. It’s rooted in a parent’s fear that their children are such perfect models of themselves that they’re bound to repeat the same mistakes. David, at one point, confesses that he’s at his most vulnerable in the highs of his daughter’s life – “that’s when you get scared, because you don’t want things to change”.

It’s familiar emotional territory, and Dever and Bouttier feel particularly underserved by how blandly straightforward their romance is, despite it supposedly providing the film’s central propulsion. Parker does seem somewhat aware of this, considering he’s taken the easiest route and thrown Billie Lourd into the mix, as Dever’s college bestie. She’s essentially playing the same scene-stealing, bon vivant weirdo as in 2019’s Booksmart : hysterically funny while always having a minimum of two day-glo-tinged cocktails glued to her hands. Emily in Paris ’s Lucas Bravo, too, delivers the perfect, totally witless comic reactions as Georgia’s French himbo pilot boyfriend Paul.

Combined, Lourd and Bravo provide a key antithesis to Roberts and Clooney’s sophisticated shtick. They’re the right ingredients. Parker uses them in the right amounts. It’s (almost) enough to justify the fact the film ends with a mid-jump freeze frame.

‘Ticket to Paradise’ is in cinemas from Tuesday 20 September

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‘Ticket to Paradise’ Review: Yes, They Like Piña Coladas

George Clooney and Julia Roberts take another dip into romantic comedy with this Bali-set film.

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By Amy Nicholson

“Ticket to Paradise,” the latest vacation romp from the filmmaker Ol Parker (who penned “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” and wrote and directed “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”), is a screwball adventure that forgets to pack the laughs. Having made a mint off his picturesque travelogues of Jaipur and Greece, Parker — who never met a mosquito that wasn’t edited out in post — now concocts a fantasyland Bali where an American law school graduate named Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) falls in love with a dimpled kelp farmer (Maxime Bouttier) and agrees to marry him one month after he quite literally fishes her from the sea.

The script by Parker and Daniel Pipski has scrubbed away any apprehensions concerning economics, education or class. (Lily’s intended, Gede, lives in a well-appointed beach hut filled with leather-bound books.) Nevertheless, Lily’s engagement proves to be the one thing able to unite her estranged parents David and Georgia (George Clooney and Julia Roberts), who hop on a plane to prevent the wedding. Any apprehensions the audience might have concerning the plot are confirmed during this flight sequence where the spiteful exes discover that not only are they stuck in the same seat row, but Georgia’s current boyfriend, a puppyish Frenchman (Lucas Bravo), is — surprise! — the pilot.

Such contrivances (and the even more ludicrous ones to follow) could work if the comedy vibrated on the edge of mania, if Roberts had a jolt of Katharine Hepburn’s wackadoo electricity or if Clooney’s Clark Gable-esque grin allowed him to convincingly grab a spear and hunt a wild pig when he hasn’t eaten since lunch. But these stars are too aware that the film’s draw is simply seeing the two of them together. Roberts and Clooney wear their stature like sweatpants, rousing themselves to do little more than spit insults like competitive siblings. They’re selling their own comfortable rapport, not their characters’ romantic tension.

When Parker needs to project that Roberts is steaming mad, he puts a clothes steamer in her hand so she can deliver her gripes between gusts of hot air. Dever, a major talent who will likely win her own Oscar someday, is too earnest to commit to inanity, while the marvelous Billie Lourd — the one cast member who can execute the tone — is squandered in a bit part where her sole personality trait is being drunk.

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Ticket To Paradise Review

16 Sep 2022

Ticket To Paradise

Over the last decade, filmmaker Ol Parker has made a name for himself by taking A-list stars, sending them to an idyllic holiday destination, and having them explore matters of life and love. The writer of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its sequel, and writer-director of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again , applies the same basic principles to Ticket To Paradise – a rare, throwbacky major-studio romcom that boasts beautiful people in beautiful places as its main raison d’être, while sneaking in deeper notions around familial expectations and intergenerational differences.

This time, the beautiful people are George Clooney and Julia Roberts – teaming up for the fifth time on the big screen, a double-whammy of movie star mega-wattage – as divorcées David and Georgia, a couple whose acrimonious split finds them only able to (just about) communicate when it concerns their daughter Lily ( Kaitlyn Dever ). The beautiful place is Bali, where Lily has gone travelling with best friend Wren ( Billie Lourd , in a welcome Booksmart reunion with Dever) after finishing her law degree – before swiftly getting engaged to dashing Balinese guy Gede (Maxime Bouttier), much to her parents’ concern. Remembering how their own idealised connection collapsed under real-life strains, they set out to thwart Lily’s nuptials. What are the chances that their own spark might reunite in the process?

Clooney and Roberts display all-out charisma both in their snippy sniping, and when in cahoots with one another.

If you never doubt for a second where Ticket To Paradise is going, the journey there is solidly constructed. The traditional rom and com elements are present and correct, the script peppered with the kinds of humourous antics and goofy setpieces the genre demands: a mission to steal the loved-up couple’s rings; a parents-vs-kids beer pong match with the beer substituted for a local eye-watering spirit; perilous encounters with violent dolphins and a venomous snake. But as with his previous work, Parker – who co-writes with Daniel Pipski, as well as directing – brings in a solid amount of character drama too, affording time to explore why David and Georgia’s love crashed and burned so spectacularly, fleshing out Lily and Gede’s maybe-not-that-crazy-after-all romantic connection, and building in believable concerns about history threating to repeat itself.

That level of substance means that Ticket To Paradise isn’t quite the all-out screwball jaunt that the trailers present – and though depth to the characterisation is welcome, it feels at odds with moments of artificiality in the filmmaking. This is a film where Roberts emerges with salon-fresh hair after a night out in a Balinese jungle, and where – for all the golden beaches of Australia, where it was filmed – a number of shots feel oddly-lit and composited, the actors visually disconnected from their lavish environment. Plus, its wilful propensity for cheese – particularly a final freeze-frame – occasionally veers into unintended comedy.

But the real draw of Ticket To Paradise is the bickering, bubbling chemistry of Clooney and Roberts set against sun-kissed climes – and there it absolutely delivers, the duo displaying all-out charisma both in their snippy sniping, and when in cahoots with one another. Their gradual reconnection becomes genuinely touching, and even though you know what’s coming, the film finds its way there effectively. If it’s not a ticket to all-out cinematic paradise, it is at least a ticket back to a genre that’s vanishingly rare on the big screen these days.

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“Ticket to Paradise,” Reviewed: Let These Stick Figures Riff and Dance!

The sharp recent decline in willingness to date a person across party lines isn’t the reason why the romantic comedy is near-dead, but it’s indicative of the problem. The rom-com genre is inherently plot-driven, whereas few viewers any longer doubt that romance itself is anything but character-driven. Romantic comedies are mechanisms devised around characters with exactly the traits that appear to be obstacles to their romance; the machinery of the plot determines whether they will fall in love despite those traits or because of them. Today, the tightly formatted genre produces the stories that know too little: few viewers are likely to overlook the meshing of details, the shared passions and life goals, the mutual discoveries, the connections of experiences and world views, outlooks and ambitions, on which enduring relationships are built. Few are dupes about the spark of love at first sight, the fire of attraction—not because such instant yet powerful bonds are false or unreliable but, on the contrary, because they can signify the immediate recognition of a vast spectrum of hidden connections and affinities that will fuel the flames over time.

That’s a long way of saying that the stick figures set in motion in rom-coms get their simulation of amplitude from star power. The lead actors must convey a volume of personality and a weight of experience that the scripted characters don’t. “Ticket to Paradise,” starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts (such is their billing), depends on that power to fill out a simple framework of a story. It offers them too little to work with—too little guidance, too much empty space to fill. The couple that they play is burdened with a personal history that the movie never develops, never even discloses; their action is focussed on a second couple—one involving their daughter—that gets even less character development. To the extent that the movie’s charm depends on that of its two stars, they’re forced so rigidly into the plot’s contrivances that they have hardly any room to maneuver, hardly any chance to be merely observed, and are snippeted to live-action publicity stills of themselves.

Georgia Cotton (Roberts), a high-powered gallery owner, and David Cotton (Clooney), a big-project architect, were married for five years, divorced two decades ago, and have lived apart ever since, in unquenched acrimony and mutual recrimination. They haven’t been able to avoid each other because they have a daughter, Lily (Kaitlyn Dever), who, to launch the action, graduates from law school. (Even the former couple’s attendance at the ceremony leads to a public bout of competitive bickering.) With a job awaiting her, Lily heads to a tropical resort in Bali for a vacation with her best friend, Wren (Billie Lourd). There, in a moment of panic during an open-sea swim, Lily cute-meets Gede (Maxime Bouttier), a young man from the island who works as a seaweed farmer, and it’s love at first sight. Lily and Gede plan to marry quickly; they’ll live in Bali, and Lily will give up her lawyerly job (indeed, she seems ready to give up her legal career). When Lily tells her parents of this plan, they spring into action, flying to Bali ostensibly to attend the wedding but actually to put into motion a harebrained scheme to prevent it—to break the young couple up and get Lily home, to work, and to the life she’d otherwise leave behind.

Even before the plot gears mesh, the squabbling of David and Georgia is both obvious and flimsy. On the one hand, the backbiting is so easygoing and intimate that it sounds from the start like the banter of a longtime couple rather than the bile of a busted-up one; yet, on the other, there’s nothing in the movie to suggest why their breakup was so bitter, why the venom remains. The emptiness of their shared hatred is of a piece with the blanked-out generality of the characters themselves. The two worldly protagonists have nothing to say, not to each other, not to others, not even to text or e-mail friends. The movie, written by Ol Parker (who also directed) and Daniel Pipski, reduces them to mere symbols of middle-aged, mid-career success, with nothing, much less experience or sensibility, to show for it, except for another great unspoken: money.

In the long-ago Hollywood that sputtered out around the time that the Cottons’ marriage did, in which character types took precedence over character, money may have been no subject. In “Ticket to Paradise,” the protagonists’ wealth raises questions that the movie never faces, even though it’s the very basis of the plot. Not only do Georgia and David drop everything for their trip, which they stuff with unquestioned comforts and luxuries, but they appear to have conveyed that level of economic freedom—and the blithe confidence that goes with it—to Lily herself. So it seems, yet one wouldn’t know, because Lily and Gede are similarly blanked out by the movie’s schematic script. They’re the more interesting couple, and their apparent differences suggest an even more dramatic meshing of personalities, traits, and experiences. The depiction of the young pair’s immediate bond is done in a near-wink, with a clichéd shot of the beaming and breathless Lily, and leaves them with almost nothing defined except—in a telling touch that suggests this nonwhite, ostensible “exotic” is really just like “us”—for Gede explaining that he and his father, also a seaweed farmer, have a contract with Whole Foods. The very essence of the plot is the elder Cottons’ instrumentalizing of Lily and dismissal of Gede—the parents treating the young couple as the objects of their own designs, the instruments of their own will. Rather than counteract that cavalier egocentrism by developing Gede and Lily in any detail, the movie replicates and reinforces it.

Parker’s directorial purview is as narrow and cramped as the script. The chemistry between Roberts and Clooney is perfunctory, blandly amiable, and the stars never get to cut loose. The one noteworthy scene of flashy and invigorating physical action—it’s a dance to accompany a round of beer pong—is filmed so confiningly and edited so tightly as to resemble a thirty-second Viagra commercial. Even the natural glories of the island seem green-screened in. Only Gede’s father, Wayan (Agung Pindha), displays a genuine sense of humor; the sole touch of charm is a moment in which Gede shows that he has inherited it.

The overt innovation in the romantic comedies of Judd Apatow involves letting casts filled with funny people run wild with their humor. But the underlying innovation is perhaps the more important one: the structuring of his films on the missing, but implied, threshing- and fleshing-out of relationships through emotionally bruising conversations. His classics imply what I call the Cassavetes hour (yet there’s something Bergmanic about it, too)—the implicit power of his characters’ complexity, which is largely only suggested, but decisively. (“Ticket to Paradise” doesn’t even imply a Cassavetes minute.) The latter-day romantic comedy that puts such scenes into action, Noah Baumbach’s “ Greenberg ,” looks candidly at the dramatic implications of romance based more on character than on situations. In “Ticket to Paradise,” Parker sticks with antiquated romantic-comedy archetypes; in the process, he overlooks and effaces the two engaging couples at the center of the action. He omits the substance, the human factor, that would bring his spare yet solid framework to life. ♦

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Julia Roberts and George Clooney rekindle old romance in Ticket to Paradise — film review

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Culture | Film

Ticket to Paradise movie review: Julia Roberts and George Clooney provide heavenly escapism

Heaven is a place where George Clooney digs middle-aged women. On an idyllic island, where a loved-up young couple are about to wed, David (61 year-old Clooney), tells ex-wife, Georgia (54 year-old Julia Roberts ), “you’re in your prime”. This preposterously fluffy rom-com recycles huge chunks of Mamma Mia! It may not have the Abba songs, but it’s full of lines that will be music to the ears of a certain demographic. It also makes effective use of dolphins, prophylactics and the f-word. If you’re in the mood for a great escape, you’ve basically just won the lottery.

Grumpy David and clenched Georgia (both rich and competitive) divorced years ago and are sworn enemies. But the pair gain a common goal when their beloved daughter, Lily (Kaitlyn Dever), goes to Bali and decides to ditch her promising legal career so she can marry local seaweed farmer Gede (Maxime Bouttier). David is single; Georgia has an over-attentive (if gorgeous and much younger) French boyfriend, airline pilot Paul (Emily in Paris hottie, Lucas Bravo). While conniving to sabotage Lily and Gede’s wedding, might David and Georgia fall back in love?

In a stand-out scene, David and Georgia get drunk and dishevelled while playing Beer Pong in a Bali bar and, to Lily’s horror, start gyrating to retro classics like Rock This Party (Everybody Dance Now). I confess, I’m a sucker for ditzy (as opposed to dirty) dancing. Clooney and Roberts, both ageing beautifully, are so confident of their charisma that they allow themselves to look properly silly and it’s adorable.

The film has plenty of other weapons, including Bravo as the adoring Paul, who gives his neurotic character real tragi-comic oomph, striking just the right passive-aggressive note throughout. Georgia has to drug Paul to get him off her back, which would seem cruel if the man’s desire to please wasn’t so plausibly oppressive. Paul has a dreamy face, but he’s an independent woman’s nightmare.

Billie Lourd, as Lily’s BF Wren, is almost as diverting. Once upon a time, filthy feminists dominated the rom com landscape and Lourd injects an oodle of that Bridesmaids energy into the proceedings (wry Wren dispenses condoms after the wedding; cool!)

Director Ol Parker’s last film was Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Ticket to Paradise is a marked improvement on that bit of twaddle, though, as already hinted, shallow waters remain the name of the game. Though climate change has been a big issue in Bali for decades, Gede and his extended family are NOT worried about tsunamis, earthquakes or shrinking mangrove forests; having achieved the perfect work/play balance, these Indonesians lead the life of Riley. A sequel in which Lily becomes obsessed with the climate crisis and uses her legal skills to demand reparations from the West seems unlikely.

Ticket to Paradise is going to make its producers a ton of money. Sometimes it’s nice to be told life’s a beach.

104mins, cert 12A

In cinemas from Tuesday September 20

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Review: Roberts, Clooney reunite in ‘Ticket to Paradise’

This image released by Universal Pictures shows George Clooney, right, and Julia Roberts in “Ticket to Paradise.” (Vince Valitutti/Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows George Clooney, left, and Julia Roberts in “Ticket to Paradise.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Maxime Bouttier and Kaitlyn Dever, right, in “Ticket to Paradise.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows George Clooney, left, and Julia Roberts in “Ticket to Paradise.” (Vince Valitutti/Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Maxime Bouttier, right, and Kaitlyn Dever in “Ticket to Paradise.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Kaitlyn Dever, left, and Julia Roberts in “Ticket to Paradise.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

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It’s often said that the movies that were fun to make never turn out great. Well, George Clooney and Julia Roberts look like they had a grand time making the Bali-set “Ticket to Paradise.”

The film, directed and co-written by Ol Parker (“Mama Mia! Here We Go Again”), isn’t the first movie to star Roberts and Clooney together. But it takes a moment to realize that their screen time together has been mostly limited to some scenes in the “Ocean’s Eleven” movies and Jodie Foster’s not-so-memorable 2016 thriller “Money Monster.”

Given their friendship and natural rapport, you imagine that there must have been half-a-dozen rom-coms in their past. Instead, it’s a reminder that Clooney, so often compared to Cary Grant, has, when dipping into comedy, mostly stuck to an archer, Coen-brothers register. And unlike Grant — whose on-screen romances included the brilliant likes of Irene Dunne, Katharine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell — Clooney has less frequently found a perfect match. Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air” and Meryl Streep in “Fantastic Mr. Fox” deserve mentioning. But, really, Clooney’s best chemistry was back in 1998’s “Out of Sight” with Jennifer Lopez — a love that bloomed in the dark trunk of a car.

“Ticket to Paradise,” which opens in theaters Thursday, is a more old-fashioned proposition: a movie built strictly — and without apologies — on the charisma of its two stars.

Roberts and Clooney play Georgia and David Cotton, a bitterly divorced set of parents whose daughter, Lily (Kaitlyn Dever), is fresh out of law school. Just before she takes a demanding job with a top firm, Lily and her best friend, Wren (Billie Lourd), set off on a trip to Bali. (Here, Australia doubles for the Indonesian island.) Lily immediately falls in love with a local seaweed farmer named Gede (Maxime Bouttier) and they decide to marry within days.

For Georgia and David, such a wedding is a four-alarm fire. They fly out straight away to sabotage it, a scheme that dredges up plenty of their own unresolved issues about divorce. “Nothing’s forever,” David hisses to his son-in-law-to-be. It’s an unholy alliance. They bicker constantly, so much so that it’s clear that their feelings are still strong for one another. I know this probably comes as a shock. Maybe sit down before reading this next sentence. But, yes, the events of “Ticket to Paradise” will bring them closer again. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

OK, so Parker’s film, written by him and Daniel Pipski, is not exactly out here to reinvent the wheel. Predictability is part of the appeal of “Ticket to Paradise,” and you can’t say it doesn’t succeed in that. The familiar beats get played with sincerity. A wince-inducing late-night dance floor sequence with House of Pain’s “Jump Around” arrives like a matter of prescribed ritual.

There are other traditions that fill “Ticket to Paradise” as the Cottons wrestle with and inevitably succumb to Balinese culture. But none so much as the customs of the rom-com. For me, “Ticket to Paradise” could have — like a lot of recent entries in the genre — greatly benefitted from a funny person taking a pass on the script. There’s not nearly as much to laugh at here as you might expect, as “Ticket to Paradise” remains mostly content, like a dozing beachgoer, to bask in the glow of its stars. Dever, hysterical in “Booksmart,” is also largely wasted in a bland role.

“Ticket to Paradise” goes down as a footnote to the many superior rom-coms Roberts has sparkled in before. And if I wanted to watch Clooney in a tropical locale, I’d choose Alexander Payne’s lovely “The Descendants.” Or for Clooney in divorcee plot, the Coens’ “Intolerable Cruelty,” with Catherine Zeta-Jones, would be the choice.

But if you just want to see Roberts and Clooney together, “Ticket to Paradise” clears that not-very-high bar with just enough charm. And, lest anyone doubt, the end-credits bloopers — which feel about as scripted as those that follow “Toy Story 2” — prove that everyone making “Ticket to Paradise” did, in fact, have a very good time.

“Ticket to Paradise,” a Universal release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for some strong language and brief suggestive material. Running time: 104 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

George Clooney and Julia Roberts Bring Movie Star Charm to Fluffy Rom-Com ‘Ticket to Paradise’

‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’s Ol Parker co-writes and directs an old-school comedy that fully embraces the usual cliches to mostly winning effect.

(L to R) George Clooney and Julia Roberts in Universal Pictures' 'Ticket to Paradise.'

Opening in theaters on October 21st, ‘ Ticket to Paradise ’ aims to make up for several years without a star-focused romantic comedy. And it has two major, not-so-secret weapons in Julia Roberts and George Clooney .

The film, written by Ol Parker and Daniel Pipski, and directed by Parker, is also a throwback to an earlier era of rom-com, one before the cast were even born (think 1940’s ‘ His Girl Friday ’).

‘Ticket to Paradise’ kicks off with divorced couple David (Clooney) and Georgia (Roberts) who begrudgingly reunite to attend daughter Lily’s ( Kaitlyn Dever ) graduation. The pair jumped into marriage 25 years ago, only for the relationship to flame out after half a decade.

Since going their separate ways, they’ve largely stayed away from each other, since their interactions tend to devolve into sniping (“worst 19 years of my life,” David cracks when Georgia mentions to someone that they used to be married. “We were only married for five,” Georgia reminds him. “I’m counting the recovery,” says David).

But when Lily and best friend Wren ( Billie Lourd ) head off to Bali to celebrate finishing college, Lily ends up meeting hunky, sweet local Gede ( Maxime Bouttier ), and decides she’s going to stay and marry him. Horrified at the idea of their genius offspring ditching a promising law career for life with a seaweed farmer, the parents agree to put aside their differences and work to stop Lily making what they see as a huge mistake – just like the one they made.

Upon arrival in Bali, though, they discover how open and agreeable Gede’s large extended family is, and, despite going through with part of their plan to curtail the wedding (George steals the rings that form a vital part of the ceremony), their time spent together on the island makes them start to reconsider their attitude – and not just to Lily’s decision.

Like a path established through a jungle, ‘Ticket to Paradise’ knows exactly where it is going and no one should be surprised by where it ends up. Frustratingly, though, there is one moment where it appears the movie will completely subvert your expectations, undercutting a particularly romantic sequence with a realization between two characters that it’ll never work before going right back to the expected denouement at the very end.

Still, the real joy in ‘Ticket’ is the journey it takes to get there and the people you meet along the way. Roberts and Clooney are, of course, screen dynamite, bringing decades of real-life friendship to the role, one that has only been exploited to full use a few times on screen before.

They’re entertaining whether they’re delivering rat-a-tat insults towards each other or trying to work together for a common goal. Though this bickering twosome could be seen as charmless complainers, the sheer likability of the pair short-circuits that.

And, though it is primarily the George-and-Julia show, the movie smartly doesn’t forget to create supporting characters who matter and recruit talented people to play them.

(L to R) George Clooney and Julia Roberts in Universal Pictures' 'Ticket to Paradise,' directed by Ol Parker. Photo Credit: Universal Pictures.

Dever, who shined in ‘ Booksmart ’ and more recently in her own rom-com twist with ‘ Rosaline ’, imbues Lily with sweetness and smarts and makes you believe she is the product of these two slightly damaged people. Plus she can hold her own on the comedy front, even if she doesn’t get as much chance to. She’s ably assisted in that by Lourd, who appears to be channelling her real-life mother ( Carrie Fisher ) as the party-happy, snark-tastic Wren.

French-born Indonesian actor Bouttier, meanwhile, fits well as the Balinese local who is the object of Lily’s affections. He and his family portray local customs and attitudes without the movie using them for cheap comedic effect. They come across as actual people, not stereotypes (even if the movie was shot on Australia’s Gold Coast, more than 2,000 miles away).

And Georgia’s current beau, commercial pilot Paul ( Lucas Bravo from the recent ‘ Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris ’) also shows up to profess his undying love for her, proposing marriage at a romantic, secluded location that unfortunately also happens to be a local snake habitat.

We’ll leave you to figure out what happens there, but his storyline is perhaps one of the weaker elements of the movie, which, alongside an unexpectedly violent encounter between Clooney and a pod of dolphins represent the movie stretching to add unnecessary comic business to a movie that works better when it is letting the stars talk and not pratfall.

Still, Parker, who has made the likes of ‘ Imagine Me & You ’, ‘ Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again ’ along with writing wrote both of ‘ The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ’ movies, is a past master at this genre, bringing a light touch to lightweight material.

(L to R) Director Ol Parker, Julia Roberts and George Clooney on the set of 'Ticket to Paradise.' © 2022 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

The scenery’s beautiful, the time passes by, and before you know it, you’re sucked into the story of squabbling adults realizing that maybe, just maybe their daughter has this whole romance thing figured out to a far greater degree than they can ever claim.

Parker’s latest effort might not challenge the great romantic comedies of our time, but it has enough charisma and laughs to work. It’s fluffy and unchallenging, but anchored by star performances and a solid enough script, it has the goods as a rom-com.

Those after an easy date night or pick-me-up – or are interested whether Roberts and Clooney still have the chemistry after the ‘ Ocean’s movies (spoiler alert: they do), will be charmed by this one.

‘Ticket to Paradise’ proves that if you put the right pieces together, any genre can be made to work in today’s movie marketplace. It’s not perfect, by any means and the stakes are so low they could win a limbo competition, but it’s light, frothy, funny, and despite the seemingly unlikeable main duo, carries it off with aplomb.

‘Ticket to Paradise’ receives 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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‘Ticket to Paradise’ Review: Julia Roberts and George Clooney Grin and Bear By-the-Numbers Rom-Com

Between the lack of passion (among various couples) and the creepy exoticization of Pacific Islanders, this feels like a glossy missed opportunity

The slick and star-driven Hollywood rom-coms of the pre-Judd Apatow era are having a mini-revival this year. First there was “Marry Me,” which teamed Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson, and now comes “Ticket to Paradise,” a sun-kissed comedy of remarriage with George Clooney and Julia Roberts. (Or should that be the other way round? Clooney’s name is on the left of the posters, but Roberts’ is slightly higher up.)

It’s efficient enough, and there are certainly tougher things to watch than two supremely attractive movie icons trading sarcastic insults in a leafy tropical Eden. But the film’s director and co-writer, Ol Parker, is so committed to light, feel-good escapism that he leaves out all of the requisite tension and twists — and, for that matter, the requisite jokes.

Parker’s last film was “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” the cheerfully redundant sequel-prequel to “Mamma Mia!” That was a brutal social-realist tract compared to “Ticket to Paradise.”

Clooney and Roberts respectively play David, a hugely successful architect, and Georgia, a hugely successful gallery owner; this is not a film about people with money worries. They divorced 20 years ago, and their loathing has only intensified since then.

What could have caused this loathing, you ask? What manner of unforgivable betrayal or catastrophic misunderstanding could have kept the fires of hatred burning for decades? The disappointing answer, as David explains, is that he and Georgia broke up because they were both working too hard, and so he came to feel as if he was running a daycare center with someone he used to go out with. This phrase is almost as striking as it was when Ethan Hawke coined it in “Before Sunset” in 2004, but it doesn’t give the characters any real reason to hate each other, so their eventual reconciliation has a shrugging, why-the-hell-not inevitability. 

There are no practical obstacles in the way of their reunion, either. David is conveniently single, while Georgia’s bumbling, much-younger boyfriend (the charmingly goofy Lucas Bravo, “Emily in Paris”) is so unsuitable that their break-up seems to come as a relief to both of them. Parker won’t allow anything as painful as an actual broken heart to dampen his film’s carefree, tourism-advert spirit.

The opportunity for the divorcees to patch things up comes when their daughter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) graduates from law school and goes on holiday to Bali with her BFF Wren (Billie Lourd, who has so little to do that it might have been kinder to have edited her out of the film altogether). After a perfunctory meet-cute and two even-more-perfunctory conversations, Lily gets engaged to resident hunk Gede (Maxime Bouttier), and they schedule the wedding for a month later, because, well, there wouldn’t be a story otherwise.

David and Georgia immediately fly to Bali, ostensibly to attend the wedding, but really in the hope that they can trick Lily into dumping her intended. The snag is that it’s impossible to care whether their sabotage plans work or not. No one will be desperate for Lily and Gede to stay together, because this bland young Barbie and Ken appear to have nothing in common except their lack of personality.

On the other hand, no one will root for Lily to return to the big city and embark on a legal career, either. Why should they, when Bali (or Queensland, Australia, where the film was shot) is an unspoiled utopia, the creepily exoticized locals are relentlessly happy, and her fiancé makes a comfortable living as a seaweed farmer — or, as he puts it, “a partnership with the goddess of the sea”? If anyone’s parents should be objecting to the rushed nuptials, it’s Gede’s. But no, they’re delighted to welcome this tourist into their idyllic family business.

As for David and Georgia, their efforts to break up the lovebirds are boringly halfhearted. What the scenario calls for is a cunning, over-complicated scheme that somehow emphasises the exes’ compatibility. What we get instead are two feeble stratagems reliant on the superstitious nature of the Balinese (again: creepy). The film is then padded out with one sequence, entirely irrelevant to the plot, in which David is bitten by a dolphin, and another sequence in which he and Georgia get drunk and dance in a beach bar. This, it seems, is all it takes for them to realize that they get on quite well, so it’s a shame they didn’t get around to it years earlier.

In the meantime, their bickering has its amusing moments. Robert is nicely flinty, and Clooney adopts the self-parodying insensitive-boor persona that he sometimes puts on at awards ceremonies. (Best example: grouching about Ang Lee at the 2006 Oscars.) But they don’t have the passion of two people who are ready either to kill or kiss one another. Indeed, “Ticket to Paradise” is as sexless as a Marvel blockbuster.

Roberts is stuck in a selection of unflatteringly baggy romper suits possibly inspired by the Teletubbies, and Lily and Gede seem so chaste that when Wren gives them a stack of condoms as a wedding present, she probably should have thrown in an instruction manual, too. 

That’s one of the key differences between “Ticket to Paradise” and the romantic comedies to which it harkens back. In the best of those, you could believe that the characters actually fancied each other. But Parker has taken the “Paradise” part of the title seriously. Everyone in his film is a little too angelic.

“Ticket to Paradise” opens in US theaters Oct. 21 via Universal Pictures.

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Ticket To Paradise Reviews Are Online, And Critics Are All About The George Clooney And Julia Roberts Pairing

There's a lot to say about these two.

Reviews are pouring in for Ticket to Paradise , and hardcore fans of the romantic comedies likely know where all of the buzz is centered. We've seen a great number of brilliant pairings between A-list actors in the genre, but we somehow have gone this long without seeing George Clooney and Julia Roberts star in one together. Suffice it to say there are people invested in seeing how this one pans out, especially given Clooney doesn’t often appear in funny love stories . 

The good news is that it seems like most every critic is all-in on George Clooney and Julia Roberts (who also doesn’t do a ton of rom-coms anymore ) in Ticket to Paradise – even if they aren’t all-in on the movie as a whole. News.com.au ’s Wenlei Ma indicates that while the movie itself might feel a tad generic, Clooney and Roberts absolutely rectify that with their performances:

Because Clooney and Roberts are on form. This is exactly the genre in which they can dial up their charms to 12, turn on the full wattage of their charisma and distract you from the fact that the movie itself is generic, predictable and loses momentum about midway through. But there are often such low expectations of rom-coms that even a passable, formulaic one can be seen as to have fulfilled its promise just by existing. And if you add Clooney and Roberts, then it’s a cut above merely amiable.

George Clooney and Julia Roberts often get praise when they share a screen together (the Ocean ’s franchise is a great example), so it should be little surprise that Ticket To Paradise reviews about the film laud their performance. Indie Wire’ s Ella Kemp is another who feels Roberts and Clooney shoulder the film well, and that’s thanks in part to the instincts of director Ol Parker: 

It’s the way Parker knows exactly when to give Roberts and Clooney their own individual, long close-ups without needing fanfare or irony, or too many set-pieces to remind you that this is money being well spent. It’s when Roberts’ immaculately tailored wardrobe has been given so much care to draw a smart, sharp woman with two decades of regret and guilt and self-preservation that it can all be understood in the way a denim jumpsuit is cut across her shoulders. It’s the fact that there is just one line in this film about age, as Ticket to Paradise is much more interested in the unique pleasures of the here and now, rather than dwelling on what could have been or what once was.

For all the praise given to Ol Parker and Ticket to Paradise for doing right by its main stars, the movie gets its lumps for ignoring some of the other talent involved. The Hollywood Reporter ’s Leslie Felperin noted that many of the characters become an afterthought in the story thanks to the powerful A-listers leading it, including the super talented Kaitlyn Dever : 

While the supporting cast includes some very watchable performers like Dever (wasted here), Bouttier and Bravo, and a few more seasoned comic professionals (Genevieve Lemon, always a delight), their characters are barely developed any more than the many Balinese secondary players and extras, who are little more than occasionally talking set decoration.

Additionally, those going into Ticket to Paradise with the hope that this movie re-invents the wheel of the romantic comedy genre will likely be disappointed. Sarah Ward of Concrete Playground notes that George Clooney and Julia Roberts are certainly worth the price of admission, but there isn’t much beyond that brings something new to the genre or will excite an audience: 

This pair have done many things in their careers, jointly and apart, and making Ticket to Paradise anything more than standard isn't one of them. Seeing them team up in their first rom-com together is still worth watching for that alone, but consider this the cinema equivalent of an average package tour with great company.

To be fair, one could say what’s being said about Ticket to Paradise is what is about a lot of movies in the gemre. There are certainly a number that stand the test of time and stand out as real game-changing moments, but a good number of them are just fine and mainly an excuse to see lead actors paired. Audiences don’t typically put on a romantic comedy expecting some huge twist ending with cliffhangers and the like, so I think it’s fair to say an experienced veteran of the genre will know what they’re getting into watching this. Andrew Pierce of The Curb put it quite eloquently in his review, which noted that while it may not rank among the best romantic comedies , there’s nothing wrong with re-treading familiar territory: 

Ticket to Paradise isn’t exactly the most exciting or memorable entry in the genre, but it does at least feel like a nice holiday that lifts your spirits. It’s good to remember that films don’t always need to aspire to be great, challenging, or subversive. Sometimes aspiring to simply be ‘good fun’ is enough, and that’s what Ticket to Paradise delivers in spades.

Ticket to Paradise is about two divorced parents, David and Georgia, who travel to Bali to meet with their daughter after she reveals she’s marrying a man she’s only known for a short time (you’ll gather that much from the trailer ). In an attempt to prevent what they feel is a big mistake, they collaborate in an attempt to sabotage the romance, and prevent their daughter from jumping into a marriage they feel shouldn’t happen. 

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Ticket To Paradise won’t arrive stateside until October 21, but those in Australia can already watch it and anyone in the U.K. will be able to enjoy it beginning September 20.  Keep tabs on its arrival, along with many others using our upcoming movies guide.

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Ticket to Paradise Reviews

While predictable by nature with character development issues throughout, Ticket to Paradise is a compelling romantic comedy worth a watch.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 25, 2024

Is a silly romantic comedy the best place to employ the drastic, dramatic zooms that a drone allows? Not really.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 3, 2024

Grant and Dunne; Hudson and Day; Hanks and Ryan; Sandler and Barrymore (or even Sandler and Kevin James) -- any of these screen couplings could easily be inserted into the plug-and-play template of this pleasant if not particularly distinguished romcom.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 26, 2024

It’s easy to pass off Ticket to Paradise as the quintessential airplane watch, something to put on to bide your time until you move on to bigger and better things but this ostensibly smooth, airy watch is the worst type of romantic comedy.

Full Review | Nov 2, 2023

The easy camaraderie between George Clooney and Julia Roberts and gorgeous location make this amiable rom-com the best kind of eye candy.

Full Review | Oct 4, 2023

The best part about the poster is it sells you on exactly what the movie is, where the movie will go, & if that is the movie you want to see then you shall enjoy it like I did!

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Even when surface-level writing fails to dig up the emotional poignancy of the second chance trope, seasoned romantic comedy darlings George Clooney and Julia Roberts make Ticket to Paradise an absolute joy ride.

Full Review | Jul 23, 2023

Travel rom-com ‘Ticket to Paradise’ has all the feel-good and escapist benefits – as long as you’re willing to ignore the heavy baggage.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 21, 2023

In some ways, "Ticket to Paradise" feels dated, but it's a great thing that it exists.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 16, 2023

The audience remains passive, unable to eperience the emotional immersion that a romantic story usually provides. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | May 30, 2023

Filled with immature, unfunny foolishness with the assumption that we'll find it charming just because of who’s on screen.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Mar 6, 2023

Timing is everything. Roberts and Clooney share the comic variety, and arrives in cinemas exactly when we need entertainment, laughter and escape, welcoming audiences with open arms. The story is standard, but the timing of its arrival is first class.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 2, 2023

Yes, dumb comedies sometimes require you to turn off your brain for a couple hours, but do you have to also turn off your soul?

Full Review | Dec 24, 2022

The gnawing arbitrariness of Ticket to Paradise cuts to the heart of why the Hollywood rom-com has been so deficient for so long, often turning to outrageously silly premises just to throw some obstacles in the way.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 19, 2022

Ticket to Paradise is totally predictable, and it feels as though it should have come out in the late 1980s or early-to-mid 1990s. That's exactly what I liked about it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 11, 2022

The film skates by on the charisma of Clooney and Roberts and the gorgeous island setting... . It’s trifling but delightful.

Full Review | Dec 5, 2022

America can raise a sigh of relief: Clooney and Roberts are back as a bitchy divorced couple. Clooney is adorable and Roberts has the worst clothes a star has ever worn. Her archenemy dressed her.

Sometimes frothy is only so much foam.

Full Review | Nov 28, 2022

Ticket to Paradise hardly reinvents the wheel, but it is a breezy excuse to reunite the Ocean’s Eleven co-stars for an incredibly fun and funny trip to Bali.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Nov 28, 2022

The chemistry of Roberts and Clooney, and also Dever and Bouttier, keep Ticket to Paradise from being saccharine and heavy-handed. It’s witty and laugh-out-loud funny. It was a pleasure to sit through and an enjoyable change of pace.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 23, 2022

Review: Julia Roberts and George Clooney put their hearts into 'Ticket to Paradise'

If anyone can bring the romcom back, bet on Julia Roberts and George Clooney.

If anyone can bring the romcom back big time, bet on Julia Roberts and George Clooney.

"Ticket to Paradise," only in theaters, is hardly a classic -- think of a punctured helium balloon sputtering to the ground after a promising start. Still, in these troubled times of clickable snark and cynicism, don't knock a blast of screwball escapism that, however flimsy, allows two astral projections of talent and good looks to sprinkle their combined stardust on the dimmest of storylines.

Roberts plays gallery owner Georgia and Clooney is architect David, a divorced couple whose main form of communication is zinging barbs at each other. They split after five years, but David claims that nearly two decades later he's still in recovery.

The two have united now to destroy the wedding, in tropical Bali, of their law-school grad daughter Lily (the reliably terrific Kaitlyn Dever) to Gede (Maxime Bouttier), a hottie local seaweed farmer she met on vacation on Gede's island home off the coast of Indonesia.

By the way, Bali looks gorgeous. But sticklers for truth in advertising should know that due to pandemic restrictions, the movie was shot in Queensland, Australia. Hooray for Hollywood!

David and Georgia don't object to Gede as a person of color -- "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" is so last century -- only that he and Lily are too immature for marriage. They should know, having been college sweethearts who married before they grew to know each other as people.

MORE: Review: 'Hustle' radiates love for the game in every frame

As far as retro plots go, this is one seems strung together out of leftovers from 1960s comic romances with Doris Day and Rock Hudson. You can tell from outer space that director-cowriter Ol Parker ("Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again") will abide by PG-13 rules of engagement that keep raunch at bay and feelings in full closeup.

For complications, we get David being bitten by a dolphin and busting drunken moves with Georgia on the dance floor, who also has a fling with Paul ("Emily in Paris" favorite Lucas Bravo), a young pilot who will never be a genuine threat to the reconciliation of Georgia and David that's been in the cards since Scene One.

If you're a viewer for whom familiarity breeds contempt, then "Ticket to Paradise" is not for you. But if you're in the mood to watch crazy rich white people enjoy their privileges away from pesky real-world issues that spoil the fun, then you've found your ticket to ride.

Clooney, 61, is not exactly a romcom guy, as 1996's "One Fine Day" abundantly proved, but his comic touch can be edgy ("Up in the Air") or broad ("O Brother, Where Art Thou"), and he brought a sophisticated snap to his scenes with Roberts in two of his Danny Ocean capers.

Roberts, 54, is romcom royalty. From "Pretty Woman" to "My Best Friend's Wedding" and "Notting Hill," she is even more dexterous with one-liners. It's intriguing that both stars won their only acting Oscar for heavy drama -- she for "Erin Brockovich," he for "Syriana."

MORE: Review: 'Anatomy of a Scandal' features exhilirating performances

Nowadays, romcoms are struggling, as witness the recent failures of JLo's "Marry Me" and Billy Eichner's gay-themed "Bros." Can the sight of two gorgeously aging A-listers falling out of love and then in again rekindle the magic?

Only time and box office will tell. Thanks to the laughs and the empathy provided by its two stars, "Ticket to Paradise" reminds us of the simple pleasures we've been missing. Roberts and Clooney put their hearts into this one and my guess is audiences will return the favor.

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Ticket To Paradise review: A return ticket to the classic rom-com

In ticket to paradise julia roberts and george clooney are a classy warring couple..

What to Watch Verdict

A non-vintage but sparkling rom-com vehicle for two of Hollywood’s finest.

Roberts’ and Clooney’s comedic chemistry

Frothy and funny

An attractive escape

Suddenly runs out of steam

Plodding and predictable ending

Those out-takes in the credits

It’s eight years since we last saw ultimate A listers, George Clooney and Julia Roberts, sharing the screen. She was the resourceful TV producer, he was the media savvy financial expert and both were embroiled in the hostage situation of Money Monster . Hardly a rom-com. But in Ticket To Paradise , they’re back together under the Bali sunshine to remind us of their natural flair for comedy — and their undoubted chemistry.

David (Clooney) and Georgia (Roberts) divorced acrimoniously some years ago and now lead separate lives to avoid the inevitable arguments. But they're reluctantly brought back together when their daughter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) announces she’s marrying Bede (Maxime Bouttier), a Bali local who she has only just met on holiday. And they're tying the knot in a few days' time. For once, her estranged parents agree: the wedding mustn’t go ahead and they team up to try to sabotage the event and save their daughter from what they believe is disaster.

And you know where this going, don’t you? You only have to get to the other side of the opening credits to see the obvious setup. Yes, it’s contrived, but remember this is a rom-com and the whole idea is to have fun with the com while you're getting to the rom. Despite their best efforts, the seemingly mismatched parents can’t avoid each other — they sit next to each other at Lily’s graduation, have adjacent seats on the plane to Bali, are booked into rooms 221 and 222 at the hotel — and the bickering starts as soon as they lay eyes on each other. 

You understand why Lily cringes with embarrassment, but watching two of the biggest names in Hollywood sink their teeth into the barbed dialogue is undeniably fun and provides some of the best moments in the film. Their respective comedy track records — Roberts in Notting Hill and Pretty Woman , Clooney in Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? and Hail, Caesar! – makes them tailor-made for their roles. And Clooney’s dad-dancing moves are an unexpected bonus.

It’s also a decidedly old-fashioned film at heart. While not a vintage rom-com, it sees itself as a 2020’s version — dare we say a return ticket? — of classic pairings like Tracy and Hepburn in Adam’s Rib and Pat and Mike , or Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday , all stories about sparring couples. In truth, it doesn’t live up to them, but that nostalgic flavor is appealing. The sad thing is that it overcooks the idea, indulging in that frequently awkward cliché of peppering the closing credits with out-takes. From what we’re shown, they were more fun for the cast and crew involved than for the audience watching them.

The combination of star-power, crisp dialogue and the vibrant colour and sunsets of Bali — even the pouring rain looks enchanting — all come together to deliver the fun and the froth we’re looking for. Then it runs out of steam with a jolt. By the time the final section kicks in, the banter has faded away to reveal there’s little left underneath. The laughter and smiles have gone the same way and, while director Ol Parker desperately tries to keep things going with a feeble sub-plot about Roberts’ adoring boyfriend Paul (Lucas Bravo), the tone is decidedly flat. All that remains is a plod towards the inevitable conclusion. What was once sparkling and entertaining is now borderline tedious.

Despite its all-too-obvious failings, the charm of watching two Oscar winners exercising their comedy chops with such relish is hard to resist. So is the beauty of the scenery and we can happily indulge the inevitable conventions — culture clashes, local traditions and repeated reminders about the importance of right time, right place and right circumstances when it comes to marriage — as well as the slim underlying theme of second chances. 

But timing is everything in Ticket To Paradise . Roberts and Clooney share the comic variety, yet the film itself has a sense of timing that nobody could have predicted when it was made. It arrives in cinemas exactly when we need entertainment, color, laughter and escape and, it responds to that need by welcoming audiences with open arms. The story may be standard, but the timing of its arrival is first class. 

Ticket To Paradise is released in UK cinemas on Tuesday, 20 September and on October 20 in US (see our new movies in 2022 guide for more films to enjoy).

Freda can't remember a time when she didn't love films, so it's no surprise that her natural habitat is a darkened room in front of a big screen. She started writing about all things movies about eight years ago and, as well as being a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic, is a regular voice on local radio on her favorite subject. 

While she finds time to watch TV as well — her tastes range from Bake Off to Ozark — films always come first. Favourite film? The Third Man . Top ten? That's a big and complicated question .....!

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Ticket to Paradise is a rom-com throwback – for better and worse

George Clooney and Julia Roberts can only do so much.

Rom-coms have been having a resurgence over recent years, mainly thanks to Netflix, and they're now coming back to dominate the big screen. We've got Bros and What's Love Got to Do With It? in the coming months, but first out of the gate is Ticket to Paradise .

The new movie from Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again director Ol Parker reunites George Clooney and Julia Roberts on-screen for the first time since 2016's Money Monster . They play warring exes David and Georgia, who put aside their differences to stop their daughter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) from marrying somebody she's just met in Bali.

It's a classic setup that could have been a rom-com in the '90s when Roberts was starring in the likes of Notting Hill and Clooney in One Fine Day . The problem for Ticket to Paradise is that the movie itself also feels like it could have come direct from the '90s too – for better, but mostly for worse.

In a recent interview, Roberts told The New York Times that "we didn't appreciate the bumper crop of romantic comedies we had then". Well, if this movie does anything, it might well make you finally appreciate how good we had it.

There's nothing that's particularly wrong with Ticket to Paradise , but it quickly becomes apparent that there's nothing particularly exciting about it either. It's the type of rom-com where you know exactly how it'll end as soon as the first act set-up is out of the way.

Predictability doesn't have to be a bad thing, but you need other elements of the movie to compensate for it. The problem with Ticket to Paradise is that for a rom-com, there's not really any jokes to be found. And the ones that are there are, more often than not, incredibly dated.

So you get several moments where David and Georgia have no idea what the Indonesian parents of Lily's fiancé Gede (Maxime Bouttier) are saying. Hilarious! You've also got not one, but two, unfortunate incidents with animals. Wild!

There are flashes of inspiration, such as with Geneviève Lemon's Beth-Ann who wants to get to know people when she flies so they'll save her if the plane crashes. But too often, like with the plot (you better believe secrets come out just before the third act for some drama), you'll see the punchline before the joke is delivered.

The one throwback aspect of Ticket to Paradise that absolutely does work though is its lead pairing of George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Their charisma and chemistry lifts the flat script, even if it doesn't really give them much more to do than bicker.

Billie Lourd as Lily's best friend Wren and Lucas Bravo as Georgia's naive boyfriend Paul deliver fun supporting turns, even if Lourd struggles with another dated trope of the drunk carefree BFF. The movie also seems to think we can't have them both at the same time, so Lily is in the first half before essentially disappearing for Paul to take over.

It's also pleasing to see that despite some questionable 'foreigner abroad' gags, the movie does showcase Indonesian culture with filmmakers working with cultural advisors to ensure its authenticity. The destination of the story might be inevitable, but at least there's some freshness to the scenes as a result.

For many, Ticket to Paradise being exactly the type of movie you'd expect will be enough to enjoy it. It's amiable enough, but with the talent in the cast, it's a shame that it never quite takes off.

Ticket to Paradise is out now in UK cinemas and is released in US cinemas on October 21.

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Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies , attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy , initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.  

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