“Ticket to Paradise” is Like a Fun Ride You’ve Taken Many Times Before

Synopsis: A divorced couple teams up and travels to Bali to stop their daughter from making the same mistake they think they made 25 years ago.
Director: Ol Parker
Stars: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Kaitlyn Dever

Let me start with the obvious, Julia Roberts and George Clooney are A-listers, Hollywood heavyweights, and Academy Award winners; they are the standard. This dynamic duo has collaborated multiple times, and on top of all of that, they are friends. Who doesn’t like making movies with their friends? It seems like such a great thing to do!

In Ticket to Paradise, they team up for a comedy where they play parents David and Georgia. They have just watched their daughter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) graduate from college. The only issue is that David and Georgia can’t stand each other. They are divorced, and their daughter Lily is the only thing that binds them.

After having her head buried in books for the last four years, Lily decides to go on a trip with her best friend Wren (Billie Lourd) and travel to Bali. They are enjoying the beautiful, picturesque destination when Lily meets Gede (Maxime Bouttier), and it’s love at first sight.

A little over a month later, Lily sends for her parents because she is engaged to Gede. David and Georgia don’t agree on much, but they don’t think this is a great idea, and they decide they must put their differences aside and come together to stop this from happening.

There are different types of performances: there are career-defining performances—these are the roles we forever associate the actor with; there are the paycheck movies—they did the movie not because of the subject material but for the money; and there are films actors make so they can hang out with their friends—pretty much every Kevin Smith movie. This film is about two Hollywood greats making a fun film together.

The movie is ridiculously predictable, even if you haven’t seen the trailer. My biggest issue with the film isn’t the ‘will they or won’t they’ chemistry with Clooney and Roberts but the realization that after Lily graduates, she wants to hang out in Bali with a guy she just met . . . um . . . ok.

That doesn’t take away from the performances. Roberts and Clooney are magic together and quite fun. The scenes they share are the best in the film, and their infectiousness in working together comes out on camera.

If you’re looking for an overall opinion on this film, don’t ask the couple that sat behind me as they talked through the whole movie (Oh, movie theatres!). Don’t ask my mate that came along with me as he fell asleep about two-thirds into it; I guess it’s up to me–fine.

Ticket to Paradise is a cute film, and the onscreen chemistry between the two main stars is clear as day. It’s a fun ride, even if we’ve taken the same one many times before.

Grade: C

Watch the movie trailer: