Clooney and Roberts are our ticket glossy rom-com heaven
Streaming now
Los Angeles gallery owner Georgia Cotton, Julia Roberts, and ex-husband David, George Clooney, have been simmering with resentment since they called time on their marriage 20 years ago.
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 decides 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 makes no pretensions about reinventing the contemporary romcom, 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”.
Director Ol Parker and Daniel Pipski’s script is occasionally heavy-handed with sentimentality but gifted actors know how to encourage us to swallow a line saturated in syrup without making us reach for travel sickness pills.
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 well-spun cinematic candy floss.
Ticket To Paradise (Cert 12, 104 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, available now via Premium Video On Demand rental, available from December 12 on Amazon/BT TV Store/ iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available on DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £26.99.