Ticket to Paradise – Film Review

David and Georgia, two divorced parents who can’t stand each other, head to Bali after their daughter, Lily, announces her plans to marry a local islander she just met while on holiday. They decide to put aside their differences and work together to stop the wedding, believing that doing so will keep Lily from making a dreadful mistake similar to their own.

There’s a certain aspect about Ol Parker‘s Ticket to Paradise that seriously reminded me of an old-school 90s or early 2000s romantic comedy. Nothing about this film screams “modern” and it’s easily one of the best things this film has going for it. It genuinely brought a smile to my face to see that there are some filmmakers who still do things the old-fashioned way.

But there were also quite a few instances in which this film made me sigh because of just how generic, uneventful, and predictable it all was. Yet, at the same time, there is plenty of fun to be had watching George Clooney and Julia Roberts just bickering back and forth with each other all while their daughter is caught in a huge head-over-heels romance of her own.

Clooney and Roberts are without a doubt the best part of Ticket to Paradise. We all know that Clooney is capable of being one smooth, charming guy even if he’s not given the right material and or script, and that proves to be the case once again in the role of David Cotton.

David is obviously trying to mask his upset and anger about his divorce by playing it off cool and suave but you can tell that he’s not sitting well with it under the surface. But you’d be forgiven for thinking he is because of just how charming he is in virtually every scene in the movie.

You can also tell Roberts feels the same way, and just like Clooney, she packs tons of wit and humor in the role of Georgia. Together, these two actors deliver two of the most dazzling performances of the year. After watching them here, I definitely need to see them in more projects together down the road.

There’s also the always fantastic Kaitlyn Dever who portrays their daughter Lily. She jumps then falls into love with a man she meets who practically seems like the picture-perfect “can-do-no-wrong” kind of guy. Sadly, her character is fairly bland and underdeveloped, but Dever doesn’t stumble with her acting one bit.

It’s also a film that comes complete with an ending that feels so predictable to the point where you’ll end up shaking your head instead of having those feel-good vibes. Scriptwriters Parker and Daniel Pipski could’ve really went back to the drawing board to tweak a few things to make certain plot points a little more unpredictable, but that’s sadly not what they ended up doing.

Ticket to Paradise features two charming performances from George Clooney and Julia Roberts, but the laughs and heart are lacking too often for this rom-com to shine.