Photo by: Charlie Martin
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Ticket to Paradise is a romance/comedy film that was released on Oct. 21, 2022. The movie was directed by Ol Parker and written by Daniel Pipski alongside Parker.
Two well-known Hollywood veterans starred in the movie including George Clooney, a four-time Golden Globes award winner and two-time Academy Award winner who played “David Cotton” in the film, and Julia Roberts, a three-time Golden Globe award winner and one time Academy Award winner who played “Georgia Cotton.”
The film’s main cast also included Kaitlyn Dever, who played “Lily Cotton” and Maxime Bouttier, who played “Gede.”
The movie’s writing was great for the romantic comedy genre. While it clung to some rom-com cliches, it approached the story from a different and more interesting angle than most of the other movies in the genre. What really made the movie engaging was the quick-witted repartee that the main characters, who were divorced, shared in the beginning and throughout the film. This drew in the viewer’s attention to the story very early on in the movie. The story itself was also pretty original, and not an exact copy of most romantic comedies.
The movie’s directing and filming was good because it incorporated the camera into the comedy aspect. Nice landscape shots of an island in Bali, which is where the movie was mostly set in, gave viewer’s a sense of the entire island. Other notable things the movie did was that it used great setting and mood to tell the story better, for example, there was rainfall in some emotional scenes and a sunset when two characters kissed.
The movie’s soundtrack was satisfactory, it was not too different from that of your average romantic comedy, but there was not too much or too little, and the music was included at the right part in scenes. As far as costumes, the movie excelled in portraying the island’s culture and tradition, it also greatly included laid back vacation-style clothing which most of the characters’ wore throughout the film.
The actors did satisfactory work in telling the story. However, most professional actors would have done as good of a job because most of the comedy relied on the characters’ words and actions in the story rather than their facial expressions or how well they delivered a line, therefore, it was good acting, but it was nothing special.
Overall, not only was the comedy good for a romantic comedy, it tied in with the characters’ backstory. The movie was great because it gave the viewer the classic romantic story, but approached it from a different angle than usual.