“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.” – IMDb
Ticket to Paradise (2022)
Starring
Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Kaitlyn Dever, Maxime Bouttier
Directed by
Ol Parker
Box Office:
$168,531,417 Worldwide
Review
You know those movies that make you think, “I’m glad that I didn’t go to the theatre for that one”? Well, this is one of them. Do I love Julia Roberts? Yes! She’s one of my favorite actresses. Do I love George Clooney? Sure. (I’ve watched The Perfect Storm an embarrassing number of times). Do I love Roberts and Clooney together? Of course. Do these factors make Ticket to Paradise a highly-rated film in my books? Unfortunately, no. While the very capable cast does earn the movie some brownie points, it doesn’t save it from its predictability. “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all”, sums it up quite well.
In all fairness, rom-coms are not my cup of tea.
You usually have to catch me while I am in a certain mood to even agree to watch one. They are either too cheesy or the comedic elements seem out of place. At times, many of them are on the brink of being raunchy. However, I do know how to give any film a chance. This leads us to a few of the upsides of the movie…
On the plus side, very few scenes in Ticket to Paradise leave you rolling your eyes. In other words, don’t expect a love affair taken straight from The Notebook. I would definitely say that the film is more of a comedy than a romance. Although, I don’t recall laughing audibly at any point of the movie either.
Setting
The film’s storyline brings everyone together to meet in the paradise that is Bali. While filming was originally set to be done there, COVID-19 put a hitch in those plans and Australia was chosen as the back-up location. Read more about the filming location here thanks to Screen Rant. Let’s just say, by the time you’re halfway through the film, you’ll want to hop on the next plane going anywhere tropical.
Overall…
Everyone starring in this film did a great job, but no one’s performance especially stood out. Maybe that’s because of the well-known grandeur that Clooney and Roberts bring to the table. It’s not like Kaitlyn Dever is an unknown actress either; she’s popping up everywhere and I don’t expect that to change any time soon.
This movie was simply fun to watch. Are there any unexpected twists or turns? No. After one viewing of the movie’s preview, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting yourself into. This isn’t a bad thing! I think we’ve grown so accustomed to needing a film’s climax to be groundbreaking, that we think nice, simple, (somewhat obvious) ones are too “tame”. I’m the first to admit that I feel this way in regard to horror movies, but I think rom-coms can afford to be free of surprises. So, while I did say, “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all”, this is one that you should see.
Related:
Enough Said (2014) Movie Review