Shadows on the Wall | Ticket to Paradise

Ticket to Paradise

dir Ol Parker
scr Ol Parker, Daniel Pipski
prd Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Deborah Balderstone, Sarah Harvey
with Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Kaitlyn Dever, Billie Lourd, Maxime Bouttier, Lucas Bravo, Ilma Nurfauziah, Genevieve Lemon, Sean Lynch, Agung Pindha, Ifa Barry, Dorian Djoudi
release UK 20.Sep.22,
US 21.Oct.22
22/UK Universal 1h44

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bouttier, lourd, dever, clooney and roberts

With a more sophisticated script, this might have been the riotous screwball comedy it so clearly wants to be. But lazy writing makes it difficult for the audience to muster up even one solid laugh, and dodgy special effects leave the gorgeous tropical locations looking a bit suspect. Still, there's a lovely family drama buried in the goofy situations and hammy performances, which makes the movie almost likeable.

After university graduation, Lily (Dever) takes a trip to Bali with her partying friend Wren (Lourd), blowing off some steam before returning home to the law career lined up for her. Then she meets hot seaweed farmer Gede (Bouttier) and decides she wants to stay in paradise forever. Her parents Georgia and David (Roberts and Clooney) are still feuding two decades after their divorce, but they put on a united front as they head to Bali to scupper the wedding and keep Lily from making the mistake they made. But can they thwart true love?

Filmmaker Parker fills the screen with ridiculously idyllic settings like Gede's home on a gorgeous beach near his of course sustainable seaweed farm, run by his staggeringly beautiful extended family. Stir in picturesque, tourism-friendly Balinese traditions, plus hikes in the jungle, local landmarks and a bit of swimming with dolphins. All of this is overlaid with painfully corny slapstick, obvious digital trickery and stereotypical characters like Georgia's earnest toyboy pilot boyfriend (Bravo) or a randomly chatty tourist (Lemon).

But even if the comedy never quite lands, Roberts and Clooney still manage to be as thoroughly engaging as possible, taking underwritten, cliched characters and playing up the clash between their innate charm and their rather dark cruelty. Naturally, they also have plenty of sparky chemistry together, which just about makes up for the lack of sharp dialog, especially in scenes that are deliberately more dramatic. Dever, Lourd and Bouttier do what they can to liven up their resolutely bland roles, while Bravo proves to be an adept, up-for-it scene-stealer.

Because of the highly skilled cast and comedy-gold premise, pretty much everything about this movie is a missed opportunity. Watching it, we actually feel ourselves wanting to laugh. So even if it whiles away the time amiably enough, and leads to a series of final scenes that are warmly involving, the lack of wit and sass leave the whole movie feeling half-hearted, including the overworked, paper-thin message about trusting your heart and not putting off being happy.

themes, language 20.Sep.22

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