George Clooney and Julia Roberts are two excellent actors and the Academy Awards they each won were well deserved. They are also two very suitable actors for romantic comedies, and if we accept the idea that good romantic comedies can be made with characters (and actors) in their 50s or even 60s, then casting them in the lead roles of a film of this kind may be a good idea. However, to make a quality romantic comedy something else is needed – a believable story that makes us resonate with the characters on the screen, possibly fall in love with them or suffer with them during the screening of the film. ‘Ticket to Paradise‘ by director Ol Parker did not have the chance of such a scenario. By basing their film solely on the charm and magnetism of the two actors, the filmmakers have failed in their attempt to deliver quality entertainment. Clooney (at the peak of his charisma) and Roberts try their best, but it’s not enough to save the film from the fate of a mediocre comedy.
David (Clooney) and Georgia (Roberts) married 25 years ago and divorced 5 years later. Lily, their only daughter is finishing her law studies and a wonderful career awaits her starting in a prestigious law office. On the farewell college trip to Bali, the young woman meets a local seaweed farmer, falls in love with him, and decides to remain on the island paradise in the Indian Ocean. The two divorcees decide to join forces to convince their daughter to give up her marriage plans. The reasons are their own experience of a failed marriage but also the fear that the girl is destroying her life, at least according to Western or American patterns. The first 10-15 minutes offer the opportunity for funny exchanges of replicas, filmed with rhythm and using appropriately the technique of parallel frames. These are also the best comedic moments in the film, in my opinion. It is what follows that disappointed me.
‘Ticket to Paradise‘ reminded me of a tradition of American cinema in which the film fits very well. It’s about dramas, sentimental comedies or musical films produced in the 30s whose stories took place in the world of the super-rich dressed in tuxedos, sumptuous dresses and fur coats. Spectators of those times, preoccupied with economic crises and – towards the end of the decade – with the danger of war, filled the theaters where charismatic heroes played by actors such as Clark Gable or James Stewart appeared on the big screens. With a few changes in scenery and dialogues, ‘Ticket to Paradise’ could have been made then. George Clooney is, by the way, the actor closest to the profile of the great American actors mentioned, and he is formidable in this film. But I think that his charm (and to a lesser extent that of Julia Roberts) are not enough to carry the whole movie. The relationship between the two is too predictable and the parallel love story between the two young people is completely missed. Kaitlyn Dever as the daughter is, I think, a terrible miscasting. At no point do we see her as an intelligent young woman making a sensible decision. The way in which the natural paradise of Bali is described is at the level of tourist clips commercials and the presentation of the local culture smella paternalistic Western folklorism. I understand that the intention of the filmmakers is here also an escapist cinema that disconnects its viewers from the problems of the day, but in the absence of authenticity and a somewhat believable story, the effect risks being missed. I’m afraid that only the joy of seeing George Clooney and Julia Roberts again and together is what will be left after watching this film.