Ticket To Paradise (12A)

During a post-graduation trip to Bali, Lily falls head over heels in love with a handsome local called Gede and the young couple hastily decide to marry. With just four days until the nuptials, Lily's divorced parents David and Georgia secretly agree a truce to carry out an underhand plan to break up the couple so Lily doesn't make the same mistake as them. Unaware of her parents' intentions, Lily introduces Gede to David and Georgia.

LondonNet Film Review

Ticket To Paradise (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

Julia Roberts is well versed in the art of sabotaging marital bliss on the big screen. In My Best Friend’s Wedding, she enacted an underhand scheme to stop the love of her life (Dermot Mulroney) from marrying his sweetheart (Cameron Diaz), then in Runaway Bride, Roberts left Pretty Woman co-star Richard Gere standing at the altar. Third time’s a charming confection as the Oscar-winning actress reunites with George Clooney to play an acrimoniously divorced couple, who plot to wreck their daughter’s island wedding so their only child doesn’t suffer the same heartbreak as them in the future. Predictably, sparks of attraction are rekindled in a foreign climate as director Ol Parker translates his work behind the camera of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! from a fictional Greek island to the Indonesian archipelago…

Co-written by Parker and Daniel Pipski, Ticket To Paradise makes no pretensions about reinventing the contemporary rom-com, juxtaposing amusing set pieces (competitive beer pong, close encounters with aquatic creatures) and heartfelt confessions about the fragile human heart (“Being loved is not the same as loving”). It’s a glossy escape from reality that witnesses Roberts fall asleep in the jungle under a manmade canopy of leaves during a downpour and regain consciousness in spotless attire with lusciously conditioned, tumbling locks and flawless make-up. The two leads could play these roles in their beauty sleep and their innate megawatt charm powers director Parker’s breezy romp.

Los Angeles gallery owner Georgia Cotton (Roberts) and ex-husband David (Clooney) have been simmering with resentment since they called time on their marriage 20 years ago. “We try not to be in the same time zone if I can help it,” Georgia informs a colleague. The couple’s daughter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) is caught in the middle of the acid-tongued animosity. During a post-graduation trip to Bali with best friend Wren (Billie Lourd), Lily falls in love with seaweed farmer Gede (Maxime Bouttier).

Thirty-seven days later, the giddy young couple decide to marry, jettisoning Lily’s plans to attend law school in America. David and Georgia call a truce as they travel to Bali to covertly break up the tropical lovebirds. With just four days until the nuptials, a blissfully unsuspecting Lily introduces Gede to her parents and Georgia’s current beau, airline pilot Paul (Lucas Bravo), touches down in the sun-kissed idyll.

Ticket To Paradise offers a feelgood package deal of breath-taking locations, tart one-liners, dreamy youthful optimism and Clooney and Roberts drunk-dancing to House Of Pain’s 1992 bop Jump Around. The cast appear to be having fun (enforced by outtakes during the end credits) and the effervescence is infectious. Parker and Pipski’s script is occasionally heavy-handed with sentimentality but gifted actors know how to encourage us swallow a line saturated in syrup without making us reach for travel sickness pills.

– Sarah Lee