There’s something oddly nostalgic about watching two big name celebrities bicker back and forth while drinking beautiful drinks and standing on beautiful beaches, knowing that by the end of 100 minutes they’ll have fallen in love. It’s a formula as tried and true as movies running at 24 frames per second, but despite never really going away, the rom-com hasn’t been nearly as big of a theatrical focus as it was in the 90s and early 2000s. But with a mini-resurgence thanks to works like “Marry Me” and “The Lost City”, the theatrical rom-com revolution continues with “Ticket to Paradise.”
Shortly after their daughter Lily’s, played by Kaitlyn Dever (“Booksmart,” “Unbelievable”), impromptu engagement, longtime divorced couple David and Georgia Cotton, played by George Clooney (“Ocean’s 11,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”) and Julia Roberts (“Mystic Pizza,” “Eat Pray Love”) respectively, decide to bury the hatchet and devise a plan to sabotage her wedding to prevent her from making the same mistake they did: getting married too young. Along the way they have to contend with Lily’s best friend Wren, played by Billie Lourd (“Scream Queens,” “Booksmart”), Georgia’s young pilot boyfriend Paul, played by Lucas Bravo (“Emily in Paris,” “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris”), and the suspicions of Lily’s fiancé Gede, played by Maxime Bouttier.
Directed by Ol Parker (“Imagine Me & You,” “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”) and written by Parker and Daniel Pipski, “Ticket” is nothing radical for the genre by any means. It’s an exercise in formula down to its opening sequence and third act emotional revelations. It’s nothing to write home about, but there’s also a comfort in the experience. It’s a technically well-made film, without any drastic issues with editing or production, so it ends up being a competently made, frothy and familiar movie which invites comfort for some viewers because of it.
Clooney and Roberts have great chemistry, easily tossing barbs back and forth, making plans and doing a lot of drinking and scheming. These aren’t particularly challenging roles, but the pair cranks up the charm and are clearly having a blast. Dever is also great, getting to work with a bit more emotional material without ever losing her seemingly effortless charm. Bouttier is also a great straight man to a lot of the absurd events, helping to ground the movie in a legitimate sense of love. Meanwhile, Lourd and Bravo both steal virtually every scene they’re in, cranking up their comedic chops to be the best form of comic relief they can; yet another film in a series of comedic misadventures that would make Lourd’s late mother quite proud.
This is the kind of movie that’s hard to say a lot about. It’s a cocktail of a film; light and sweet, without any really “healthy” substance, but it doesn’t need to have any. It’s a distraction, a misadventure that’s meant to provide 100 minutes of smiling and laughs, and on those fronts it absolutely succeeds. For a good idea of what era of cinema this feels like a throwback to, there’s even an honest to god outtakes reel during the credits.
If you’re looking for beautiful beaches and beautiful people, look no further than “Ticket to Paradise.” If you’re looking for anything further, than you’re probably better off looking elsewhere, but this is a fun distraction that seeks to just entertain, and that’s where it succeeds with flying colors. It’s nothing fancy, but its colorful, sugary, and fun; a margarita of a movie, (and drinking one while watching probably wouldn’t hurt). 3/5
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