Ticket to Paradise: Movie Review

Cast: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Kaitlyn Dever, Maxime Bouttier, Billie Lourd
Director: Ol Parker

You've seen the likes of Ticket to Paradise before.

It's a fairly cookie cutter affair - a couple of squabbling former lovers are thrust back into each other's lives and continue to bicker. But lo and behold they rediscover the connection they had years ago etc etc as they unite under a common cause.

So it is with Ticket to Paradise, a film so mind-numbingly inane you'll be praying for its end as soon as it's begun.

As a tourism ad for Bali, it's second to none. (Even though it was shot in Australia). As a romcom it's offensively bland and wastes all its stars' inherent charisma and starwattage with a script that's lazy, weak and panders to the characters' stupider edges.

Clooney and Roberts play David and Georgia Cotton, whose about-to-be-a-lawyer daughter Lily (Dever) shocks them when she reveals she's to marry a boy she met in Bali on a post-graduation holiday. 

The parents head to Bali with the intention of splitting them up - but not everything goes to plan.

There could be strong farcical elements in Ticket To Paradise, given both Clooney and Roberts' propensity for comedy, and their chemistry from having worked together before. But what emerges is a low-hanging fruit piece that fails to capitalise on or challenge its stars.

With its broad humour and its wide attempt at appeal, this is the kind of romcom that was churned out in the 90s with nary a care in the world - only this latest appears to have been a sponsored travel trip that casually involved some Hollywood actors who have to sell a sniping relationship and a tired narrative.

To say it follows a predictable path is to undersell the narrative, but you can see what's coming from a mile off - and while that doesn't diminish the work done by Clooney and Roberts and their rapport, who are clearly having fun, it doesn't exactly commend them either thanks to a thin plot, and a ludicrously escalating list of situations.

Ticket to Paradise is an inoffensive and unfunny rom-comedy that knows smugly what it wants to do, and revels in its old school ambitions. But for some this 100 minute jaunt abroad is nothing more than a Ticket to Cinematic Hell.