by Jake Bourgeois, Contributing Writer
Ticket to Paradise cheated. They used a cheat code.
When you start your movie off with George Clooney and Julia Roberts teaming up for a rom-com, 95% of your work is already done. They’re two of the most charismatic people on the face of the planet, and we already know they work well together. Add Kaitlyn Dever to the mix, and I’m in hook, line, and sinker.
Clooney and Roberts play Dever’s divorced parents, who reluctantly team up in order to stop their recent law school graduate daughter from marrying a local boy she just met while vacationing in Bali (Maxime Bouttier).
In giving you that premise, I could ask you to guess how the movie goes from start to finish, and you’d probably get there.
The trailer that I sat through multiple times in the theater even spoiled basically the entire thing. It doesn’t matter. I didn’t care.
You know why? Because even in the two minutes they’re given to sell the movie, you’re smiling and having fun.
That’s what Clooney and Roberts do. That’s what make them Hollywood royalty. They know how to play off each other perfectly. So, for all intents and purposes, it doesn’t really matter that there’s nothing groundbreaking here, because you’ll be more than happy to watch them do it. For her part, Dever fits into the mix as well as you’d hope, particularly when she gets to play off of her onscreen parents. The way the script works when a pair of them, or even all three, are there are when it’s at its best. Even the way they play off how everyone views those relationships differently was clever.
They might not actually be in Bali (try Australia), but it’s gorgeous nonetheless, and the movie takes full advantage. Everyone is having a blast in their version of paradise and it shows — it’s even backed up by the credit blooper reel.
Is it perfect? Obviously not. Sure, I would’ve loved a little more of Billie Lourd as Dever’s best friend. No, it didn’t need to give Roberts’ character a boyfriend. And, like her parents, I took some time to warm to the relationship between Dever and Bouttier.
Detractors can (and I’m sure already have) bemoan the fact that it doesn’t really bring anything new to the formula, but such critiques are missing the point. The whole message of the film hammers home that sometimes the whole goal doesn’t have to be all about prestige, just what makes you happy.
The end of the year awards fodder is coming, and with it, a plethora of films that will challenge you and show you innovative things you’ve never seen before. That’s fantastic, and I look forward to enjoying those as much as the next person.
What this movie DID do, though, was plaster a gigantic smile on my face. Sometimes that’s enough.
Score: 7/10
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