Ticket To Paradise movie review: George Clooney-Julia Roberts' film never strays too far from its comfort zone

Throw George Clooney and Julia Roberts as bickering exes together in a pretty place, (somewhere like, I don’t know, Bali?) and the rest will take care of itself. Sounds like a simple enough recipe for a hit romcom, and it’s more or less the dictum that Ticket to Paradise (directed by Ol Parker) swears by for most of its 100-odd minutes. Clooney’s David, an architect, was married to Robert’s art dealer Georgia while they were both very young, before life got too real, the two bickered one time too many and ended up divorced. Years after they parted ways, the two have teamed up to sabotage their daughter Lily’s (Kaitlyn Dever) upcoming nuptials with a man she met while on vacation in Bali.

David and Georgia feel that their daughter (who’s much better-adjusted than either of them, a fact they conveniently ignore) is making the same mistake they did and are determined to save her from herself (or so they think). Of course, since this is a throwback romcom harkening back to the genre’s strongest eras, it’s David and Georgia who end up bonding all over again, even as their dinky little plan flails all over the pretty beaches of Bali, with a combination of snarky dialogue and physical humour (Clooney hurting himself after a bravado-fueled dive into the ocean is a high point).

Ticket to Paradise never strays too far from its (and the audience’s) comfort zone. It knows what it’s selling — namely, the memories of a simpler time when against-all-odds, will they won’t they love stories could and did work on the big screen. Much like another hit romcom this year, Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock’s The Lost City, there are a number of stylistic tips of the hat here to Nancy Meyers and other bigwigs of the genre.

For example, Clooney has an almost obligatory scene here when he has his first real heart-to-heart with his future son-in-law—and uses the occasion to scare him off the idea of marriage. The dialogue doesn’t really cover any new ground, but Clooney’s insouciant, faux-weary delivery really sells the scene—straight out of a Nancy Meyers classic, this one.

“You two seem good together. And Lily does love Bali. I can see her being happy here—for a while. Nothing lasts forever. Enjoy it up until the moment she ends it, which she will. She’s ambitious and she’s endlessly curious. And as beautiful as this island is and as pleasant as you seem to be… ultimately, it’s just not gonna be enough. Word of advice: don’t have kids, it’ll make things complicated when she takes them and returns back to the States.”

Ditto Roberts’ emotional scene in the second half, when she tells her ex-husband David how lopsided the parental equation became with him, especially post-divorce.

“I never get to be the one who gives her what she wants,” Roberts’ Georgia says. “I was there for her, yes—to make the rules, to fight with. While you got to swoop in and be the fun Dad. Take her anywhere she wanted to go, buy her anything she’d want and just bring her back when she’s done.”

Like Roberts’ own earlier superhit Eat Pray Love, the South East Asian setting is largely cosmetic. There are no characters from Bali that are allowed to be anything other than comic reliefs or sympathetic ears for David and Georgia. Also, the excellent Kaitlyn Dever is, for some strange reason, not given too much to do in the second half.

But these missteps don’t really matter a whole lot by the end, because the makers know what the audience really wants: undiluted Clooney and Roberts, riffing off each other, demonstrating that elusive thing called ‘chemistry’ that’s in exceedingly short supply these days, especially on the large screen. The star duo obliges with effortless, charismatic performances: Clooney playing the grump with a well-hidden emotional side, Roberts playing the too-cool-for-school high-flyer whose snark has well-defined limits. And much like the old-school (think 40s and 50s Hollywood) romantic scripts this film is clearly inspired by, it works against all odds. It works despite a too-safe screenplay that leaves little breathing space for the actors.

Watch Ticket to Paradise for the sheer star power and impeccable comic timing of Roberts and Clooney. You may not remember a whole lot of dialogues the next day, but it’ll be a fun ride for sure.

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Aditya Mani Jha is a Delhi-based independent writer and journalist, currently working on a book of essays on Indian comics and graphic novels.

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