Sunny delight
TWO TICKETS TO GREECE Cert
15 ★★★
Girls wanna have fun but have forgotten how in this coming-ofmiddle-age comedy drama, which romps through the Aegean islands in the company of French actresses Olivia Cote and Laure Calamy as 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 earned her the nickname Tinnitus.
Mamma Mia! splashed through similarly picturesque Greek locations and there are moments in writerdirector 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 introduces 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, nicknamed Bijou, who rejected a life of privilege in Kent to become a nomadic jewellery maker on Mykonos with her artist lover Dimitris (Panos Koronis).
Her self-confessed freeloader’s casual, bohemian attire is reminiscent of Meryl Streep’s ebullient matriarch in the ABBA musical.
Two Tickets To Greece offers an all-inclusive package deal of gentle laughter, dewy-eyed reminiscence and empowerment. Calamy and Cote are an appealing pairing, the former wholeheartedly embracing her firecracker’s casual attitude to full frontal nudity.
Fitoussi’s tour of self-doubt following a relationship breakdown 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.
This follows a well-trodden path but the scenery is consistently gorgeous