Ticket to Paradise

Written and directed by Ol Parker is this new romcom starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Clooney and Roberts are David and Georgia, once married and parents to Lily (Kaitlyn Deever), which means they still have to maintain a relationship that is, fair to say, less than amicable. When Lily heads off with her friend Wren (Billie Lourd) to Bali to celebrate her graduation, she’s meets, falls for and intends to marry Gede (Maxime Bouttier), much to her parents shock and displeasure. They decide they need to team up, head to Bali and stop the wedding and make Lily realise the terrible mistake she’s making.

Sometimes films surprise you and sometimes they are exactly the unsurprising vanilla genre film you expect and Ticket to Paradise is that romcom and it’s a perfectly serviceable one.

Firstly as the autumn kicks in, it looks wonderful whisking you off to the beaches of Bali (well Queensland, Australia actually) and shows you some wonderful sites, lovely sunsets and sunrises as it winds its way to its inevitable conclusion.

Clooney and Roberts are consumate professionals delivering exactly what you want from them, plenty of charm and plenty of enjoyable bickering. Kaitlyn Deever is less used, but is warm and strong minded, knowing what she wants but never coming across as spolit. But the film really is just a vehicle for Roberts and Clooney to exercise their underused romcom muscles.

The film is all very nice, it looks nice, David and Georgia’s bickering is nice and the ending is nice it’s just not very inspiring or memorable.

It is exactly what it sets out to be. A light and fluffy romcom showcase for two skilled comedic actors. It looks warm and lovely and you’ll enjoy it as it happens and in years to come you’ll find it on TV and watch it. It’s just very average, but nice with it.