Ticket To Paradise might land squarely in the realm of predictability, but the film is driven wholeheartedly by its undeniable star power. This year is proving to be a stand up period for the romantic comedy.
Written by Alex Gilston / September 30, 2022
A long since divorced couple, David (George Clooney) and Georgia (Julia Roberts), are forced to travel out to Bali when they find out their daughter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) is getting married to a man she’s just met. Not wanting their daughter to repeat the same mistakes they did, they hatch a plan to try and sabotage and stop the wedding from happening. Ticket to Paradise treads familiar ground and if you’ve seen the trailer prior to watching you might already have an idea where it’s going to go. However there’s an advantage in knowing what to expect because Ticket to Paradise is like receiving a warm hug from someone you’ve known your entire life.
Sometimes in a film like Ticket to Paradise, the cast look like they’re having so much fun that it doesn’t necessarily feel like they’re acting. George Clooney and Julia Roberts have been clear in the lead up to the film that it didn’t feel like work, and you can tell. It’s a group of friends getting together on a beautiful looking holiday and we get to go along with them for the ride. Clooney and Roberts play the enemies to lovers trope perfectly and the conclusion of their story is earnt. This isn’t the least bit surprising and it only works so well because of their natural chemistry which they exude from start to finish. There’s also a little Booksmart reunion in Ticket to Paradise. Kaitlyn Dever is the perfect emotional anchor as Lily and is a bridge between Clooney and Roberts. Billie Lourde, although not massively integral to the plot, has perfected the role of comic relief quite similarly to her character in Booksmart. There’s also a rogues gallery of silly characters that all have their moment, including a lady on a plane who overshares about her life to her seat-mate just in case it crashes.
Ticket to Paradise might not be as consistently funny as it could be, it’s not all jokes and not all of them land, but it’s impossible not to be swept away by it. With the all star cast, a fairly irresistible, albeit, cosy plot, and with the added scenery of Bali it becomes paradise by name, paradise by nature.
STAR RATING
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