It would be easy to dismiss Ticket To Paradise as something soft and airy that goes down smoothly—an easy choice for an airplane watch or if you’ve ever been stuck in a hotel with basic cable. But you won’t find that kind of trampling here. This movie stinks, really stinks, and the fact that it had the makings of a winner makes it all the more disappointing. George Clooney and Julia Roberts, the last of a certain breed of Hollywood A-lister, play estranged couple David and Georgia. He’s an architect, or something, because we see him walking around a construction site in a hard hat, and he’s unlikely to be tying steel. We see Georgia in her huge gallery in LA, mocking the contemporary art she sells. (“I think it’s upside down,” he says. I think I saw a similar gag in The Flintstones.) The thing is, they’re both extremely successful, but we never see them talk about their work, and they have time to disappear for a while without to check in or get meetings or anything. I can barely do that and I write about movies on the internet, for God’s sake, that’s a notch below hunter.
MOLD
Ariel Carver-O’Neill Kimberly Ling Cooper Tang Auctioneer
DIRECTOR
Ol Parker
SUMMARY
A divorced couple teams up and travels to Bali to prevent their daughter from making the same mistake they think they did 25 years ago.
Their daughter Lily (Caitlin Dever) just graduated from law school, so as a gift to herself before she starts working at a big company, she takes her best friend Ren (Billie Lourd) on a trip to Bali. (Ren brings a huge supply of colorful condoms.) While there, Lily is bewitched by a hunky seaweed farmer (it happens!) named Gede (Maxime Bouttier), and soon after sends a message to her parents: I’m getting married. While David and Georgia really can’t bear to be in the same room together, they agree to put up a united front – they’re going to fly to Bali and try to knock some sense into their daughter. They strategize to appear cool with the decision, but sow seeds of doubt. G/O Media may receive a commission There’s nothing about it that isn’t fertile ground for a good old-fashioned comedy. The problem is that director Ol Parker, who co-wrote the screenplay with Daniel Pipski, seems completely allergic to jokes. Bring a microscope with you to a screening of Ticket to Paradise and report if you can find anything funny. Dever yells “Daddy, you’re embarrassing me!!” while Clooney huffing and puffing at C+C Music Factory is considered humor? Maybe to those who have given up on movies it is. Clooney, it’s established, has comedies, but there’s only so much he can do without scripted material. He contours his voice and grins, weaves his head to throw as much spin as possible into spats and would-be witticisms, but that gets tiresome after about 10 minutes. His screams at his ex-wife ultimately portray him as an unacceptable jerk. Roberts’ abundant natural charisma is unfortunately lost when she portrays just another rich white woman in paradise. Kaitlyn Dever, so funny in Booksmart, has a unique character here: she’s defined by being in love with her new boyfriend. Why; Well, he’s handsome and seems committed to a quiet life harvesting seaweed in a very photogenic spot. He is also madly in love with her, but has even less motivation. It’s totally boring and you have to understand that vacationing college grads come in the busloads, right? There is nothing about her that stands out. If anything, Billie Lourd’s character has 10 times more personality (and dresses with more panache, too.) It just feels like someone sketched out “they’re in love” in a first draft of this script and never went back to fill it in. Ticket to Heaven | Official Trailer [HD] Ticket To Paradise’s Bali is a joke. Most of the film takes place at a luxury resort, except for an engagement party thrown by Rege’s extended family. Here we have a superficial view of Balinese culture, seen only on a beach. We don’t see real life. No one goes to the grocery store in this movie. There is no depth, except that all are saints. Here was an opportunity to delve into a fascinating culture (google “Balinese monkey chant”) and present it against modernity, and we came up short. And while it’s obvious that David and Georgia (and we, the audience) are ultimately going to support this marriage, no one bothers to ask any basic questions. What will he do there? Her career plans have shifted from the legal world to the “house out.” Can a couple live on love and seaweed alone? Ticket To Paradise has already opened in Europe and is doing pretty well, and this year’s The Lost City , while a little more high-concept (and fun), shows that comedies with aging A-listers can still pull in people at the theatre. The location photography in this is certainly enjoyable (every character has their own “I’ve never seen anything more wonderful” moment) so the fault here is really the writing and direction. It’s like everyone made this movie for the joy of being on vacation — while getting one.
