It would be easy to ignore ticket to paradise like something soft and airy that goes down smoothly – an easy choice for an airplane watch, or if you’re ever stuck in a hotel with a basic cable. But you won’t find such jogging here. This movie stinks, really stinks, and the fact that it had the components to be a winner makes it all the more frustrating.
George Clooney and Julia Roberts, the last of a certain kind of Hollywood star, play estranged couple David and Georgia. He’s an architect, or something, because he’s seen stomping around a construction site with a helmet on, and he’s unlikely to be strapping steel. We see Georgia in her massive LA gallery, mocking the modern art she sells. (“I think it’s upside down,” she says. I believe I’ve seen a similar gag on The Flintstones.) Thing is, they’re both very successful, but we never see them talking about their work and they just kind of disappear for a while without showing up or taking meetings or anything. I can barely do that and I write about movies on the internet, for God’s sake it’s a cut below Dog Catcher.
Their daughter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) has just graduated from law school. Before starting to work in a large law firm, she takes her best friend Wren (Billie Lourd) on a trip to Bali. (Wren brings a huge amount of multicolored condoms.) There, Lily is enchanted by a handsome seaweed farmer (it happens!) named Gede (Maxime Bouttier), and soon after, she sends a message to her parents : II am going to get married.
Although David and Georgia really can’t stand being in the same room together, they agree to present a united front – they’ll fly to Bali and try to make sense of their daughter. They concoct the strategy for appear be cool with the decision, but sow the seeds of doubt.
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There’s nothing in any of this that isn’t fertile ground for 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 for a projection of ticket to paradise and come back to us if you find something fun. Does Dever yell “Dad, you’re embarrassing me!!” while Clooney bellows and shakes his rump at C+C Music Factory considered humorous? Maybe for those who have given up on movies, it is.
Clooney, it’s well established, has comedy chops, but he can’t do much without written material. He contours his voice and smiles, weaving his head to put as much spin on potential beards and witticisms as possible, but it gets tiring after about 10 minutes. His zings to his ex-wife end up painting him as an unlikable jerk. Roberts’ abundant natural charisma is sadly lost when she portrays another wealthy white woman in heaven.
Kaitlyn Dever, so funny in Library, here has a one-note character: she is defined as being in love with her new boyfriend. Why? Well, he’s handsome and he seems engaged in a sweet life harvesting seaweed in a very photogenic location. He is also madly in love with her, but he has even less motivation. She’s downright boring, and you have to understand that vacationing college grads arrive by bus, right? There is nothing about her that stands out. If anything, Billie Lourd’s character has 10 times the personality (and dresses with more panache too.) It looks like someone sketched “they’re in love” on an early draft of this script and n never came back to fill it.
The Bali of ticket to paradise is a joke. Most of the film takes place at a luxury resort, save for an engagement party hosted by Rege’s extended family. Here we get a surface view of Balinese culture seen only on a beach. You don’t see real life. No one goes grocery shopping in this movie. There is no depth, except that everyone is holy. It was an opportunity to dig into a fascinating culture (google “Balinese monkey song”) and present it against modernity, and we got nothing. And while it’s obvious that David and Georgia (and us, the audience) are supposed to support this wedding, no one cares to ask basic questions. What will she do there? His career plans went from the legal world to “hanging out”. Can a couple live only on love and seaweed?
ticket to paradise already opened in Europe and is doing quite well, and this year The lost city, albeit a somewhat higher (and entertaining) concept, shows that comedies with older stars can still attract people to the theater. The location photography in this one is certainly enjoyable (every character has their own “I’ve never seen anything more magnificent” moment), so the fault here really lies with the writing and direction. It’s like everyone is making this movie about the joy of being on vacation, while taking one.
#Dont #bother #Ticket #Paradise #youll #refund