Two Tickets To Greece (15)

It has been two years since electro-therapy technician Blandine separated from her husband after he left her for a woman young enough to be a friend of their 20-year-old son Benjamin. The child fears his painfully uptight mother will become a recluse so he arranges a secret reunion for his mother and her schooldays best friend, Magalie. The two women realise their dream to make a pilgrimage to the Greek island of Amorgos featured in their favourite film The Big Blue.

LondonNet Film Review

Two Tickets To Greece (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Girls wanna have fun but have forgotten how in the coming-of-middle age comedy drama Two Tickets To Greece, which gallivants through Aegean islands in the company of French actresses Olivia Cote and Laure Calamy. Their odd couple dynamic is dialled up to ear-splitting volume. The former portrays a shy, socially awkward divorcee, who thinks too much before she speaks and often forgets to speak at all; the latter embodies a fun-loving, outgoing chatterbox, who is the life and soul of every party with a relentless exuberance that has earnt her the nickname Tinnitus. Mamma Mia! splashed through similarly picturesque Greek locations and there are moments in writer-director Marc Fitoussi’s undemanding, feelgood jaunt when audiences may be muttering, “Here we go again…” as his script distils familiar life lessons. Sisterly solidarity is the name of the game…

Narrative detours to islands in the Cyclades, southeast of mainland Greece, sustain a breezy pace and introduce colourful supporting characters to act as peacemakers during inevitable bickering between the central duo. Kristin Scott Thomas materialises astride a quad bike after an hour as a British aristocrat by birth, nickname Bijou, who rejected a life of privilege in Kent to become a nomadic jewellery maker on Mykonos with an artist lover (Panos Koronis). Her self-confessed freeloader’s casual, bohemian attire is reminiscent of Meryl Streep’s ebullient matriarch in the Abba musical.

It has been two years since electro-therapy technician Blandine (Cote) separated from her husband after he left her for a woman young enough to be a friend of their 20-year-old son Benjamin (Alexandre Desrousseaux). The child fears his painfully uptight mother will become a recluse as he prepares to fly the nest. Consequently, Benjamin arranges a secret reunion for his mother and her schooldays best friend, Magalie (Calamy).

In 1989, 15-year-old Blandine (Leelou Laridan) and Magalie (Marie Mallia) swooned over the soundtrack to The Big Blue and dreamt of a pilgrimage to the Greek island of Amorgos featured in the film. Decades later, they fly to Santorini to experience the dazzling blue waters of the Aegean. A disastrous ferry ride to Amorgos necessitates a detour to the small island of Kerinos, which has no tourist industry besides archaeological tour groups and surfers. “I came for The Big Blue but I find myself in Point Break,” bitterly complains Blandine.

Two Tickets To Greece offers an all-inclusive package deal of gentle laughter, dewy-eyed reminiscence and empowerment. Calamy and Cote are an appealing double act, the former wholeheartedly embracing her firecracker’s casual attitude to full frontal nudity. Fitoussi’s tour of self-doubt following a relationship breakdown and trauma does not stray from a well-trodden path but the scenery is consistently gorgeous. Rebirth, reinvention and healing in a sun-baked crucible of civilisation.

– Sarah Lee