Review: George Clooney, Julia Roberts make ‘Ticket to Paradise’

Amiable would be the best way to describe the dramedy “Ticket to Paradise.”

It receives such a descriptor if only for the presence of George Clooney and Julia Roberts, a duo that’s had chemistry on screen anytime they’ve appeared together — most notably in the “Ocean” films directed by Stephen Soderbergh.

They’re playful and flirty in “Paradise,” and sparks fly even when their characters are supposed to express some level of disdain for one another. They cannot help themselves. If this movie required one or the other to dismember the other, it would be done in the best way possible to tap into their likability as a couple.

If this film had starred any other actors, it wouldn’t be as amusing as it is.

Clooney, Roberts play divorced couple

Directed and co-written by Ol Parker with Daniel Pipski, “Paradise” uses the lead actors’ charms to great advantage, for a script that — with a couple of welcome twists — feels as if it’s a road traveled before. “Ticket to Paradise” is done well enough to endure the trip again. Parker keeps it mostly light and breezy, playing to the film’s strengths.

David (Clooney) and Georgia (Roberts), a couple divorced for 14 years, find themselves thrust back together courtesy of their daughter, Lily (Kaitlyn Dever). Recently graduated from college, the impetuous daughter takes a post-grad trip to Bali and becomes enamored with the island and a young man named Gede (Maxime Bouttier). Just 37 days later, Lily announces to her parents that she’s getting married, sending them into a tizzy and to the first plane to Bali.

They hatch a plan to break the couple up covertly while pretending to be supportive of what they actually view to be the most significant mistake she could make in her life.

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Lily buys into the notion that David and Georgia are totally cool with what she’s about to do. Gede sees the signs that his future in-laws would rather not be his in-laws.

He calls David on that fact after a couple of planned events seemingly go awry. He chooses to try to win them over while keeping Lily in the dark as to what her parents are actually doing. But, of course, it’s only a matter of time before all of this collusion collides.

‘Ticket to Paradise’ avoids obvious

Parker deserves some credit for a script that doesn’t reach for the obvious. He could have easily focused on David and Georgia’s mental machinations and left it at that. By Gede calling them out on their attempts to interfere, it adds an element of intrigue.

In another regard, when it comes to the would-be romance busters, Parker could have certainly taken an expected path with the relationship, but handles it in a comedically awkward way that proves more satisfying than the cliché.

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Yes, it certainly helps that he has Roberts and Clooney to pull that scenario off. It makes it easier to by into the obvious regret they have, which serves as running subtext throughout the movie. It’s their motivation for every action they take, right or wrong. Their chemistry is palpable, flying off the screen.

Make no mistake, they’re the stars of the film and they live up to the billing. They work well with a supporting cast that seemingly understands that.

Dever and Bouttier prove likable in their parts, but Clooney and Roberts cast a long, long shadow. In a weekend where superhero domination is expected to return to area theaters in the form of “Black Adam,” “Ticket to Paradise” represents an enjoyable alternative.

George M. Thomas dabbles in movies and television for the Beacon Journal. Reach him at gthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ByGeorgeThomas

Review

Movie: “Ticket to Paradise”

Cast: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Kaitlyn Dever, Maxime Bouttier

Directed by: Ol Parker

Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes

Rated: PG-13 for some strong language and brief suggestive material.

Grade: B-

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Review: George Clooney, Julia Roberts lift ‘Ticket to Paradise’