Scottish Daily Mail

George and Julia’s flick under fire for ‘colonial gaze’

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IT’S the starriest rom-com in years, and reunites A-list pals George Clooney and Julia Roberts.

But their new film Ticket To Paradise, which comes to cinemas in September, is drawing fire for its ‘colonial gaze’. The premise of the picture is that Clooney, 61, and Roberts, 54, are a divorced couple who fly to Bali to try to talk their daughter out of getting married to an Indonesian man she met on holiday.

Clooney and Roberts, who last worked together in 2016 on Money Monster, have said they believe that the movie has buckets of charm and were attracted by the script, which concentrat­es on their snarky relationsh­ip. Clooney is seen getting drunk, dancing and playing beer pong — while Roberts hides the new couple’s wedding rings.

However there are signs that not everyone is amused.

The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, has carried criticisms over the casting of mixed-race actor Maxime Bouttier as the Indonesian lover. Bouttier, 29, has an Indonesian mother and French father.

Local filmmaker Paul Agusta said: ‘I’ve been thinking about why they cast a mixed actor who looks very Caucasian to play a local. Not to put down Maxime Bouttier’s skill as an actor, but it doesn’t feel right.’

Agusta, who founded the Bengkel Akting Kuma Acting School, added: ‘It sends a bad message to young Indonesian actors with Hollywood dreams that unless you are mixed, or Caucasian passing, you don’t stand a chance.’

Others think that the whole idea of the film is problemati­c.

Author Intan Paramadith­a, of Macquarie University in Sydney, comments that Ticket To Paradise, like Roberts’ Eat Pray Love, reflects outdated values.

She said: ‘The films perpetuate the colonial gaze that reduces places and people merely to a landscape for Western characters to stand out or assert agency; this gaze depends on the invisibili­ty of labour of local people and the exploitati­on of natural resources to support tourism.’

The film was written and directed by Cambridge graduate Ol Parker, whose marriage to actress Thandiwe Newton ended earlier this year.

Filming on Ticket To Paradise took place in locations in Australia during the pandemic.

 ?? ?? Pals: Roberts and Clooney with director Ol Parker
Pals: Roberts and Clooney with director Ol Parker

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