Hopeless romantics rejoice! George Clooney and Julia Roberts have returned to the world of romantic comedies with the fun and surprisingly thoughtful Ticket to Paradise!
Overall Score: 9/10
Image: Universal Pictures
We’re a long way from the days when A-list actors and major studios dominated the romantic comedy genre. But with the recent releases of Sandra Bullock’s Romancing the Stone-like The Lost City and Jennifer Lopez’s Marry Me, I found myself craving and hoping for more throwback rom-coms starring big names like George Clooney (who starred alongside Michelle Pfeiffer in my personal favorite, One Fine Day) and Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman and Notting Hill). Well, it seems that my prayers have been answered because both of them are now back with Universal’s Ticket to Paradise.
So what is this movie about? The basic premise involves David (Clooney) and Georgia (Roberts), a divorced couple who loathe and regret marrying each other, trying to sabotage their daughter’s wedding to prevent her from making what they think is the same mistake they made. Superficially, this admittedly seems quite standard and not all that inventive, but as I’m about to explain, you’ll see that it’s actually quite profound and special.
Ticket to Paradise isn’t your typical rom-com. It’s not goofy or over-the-top like so many others are, and it’s not about someone who hopelessly falls in love with someone else or about perfectly mismatched individuals. No, it’s a surprisingly mature and often thoughtful exploration of how two people who have fallen out of love can slowly learn to open themselves back up to one another and fall in love again. There are scenes in this film where our two lead characters have to explain to others why things didn’t work out between them, and deep down we can see how sad and regretful they are, silently wondering what could’ve been had things played out differently. It’s these little moments of truthfulness and sincerity that give their relationship some much-welcomed depth, and when coupled with Roberts and Clooney’s terrific on-screen chemistry, you’re bound to feel wholly invested in them.
This all pairs nicely with the movie’s notion that for a marriage to work, a couple must be wed in the right place, at the right time, and in the right circumstance. And as the events of Ticket to Paradise gradually unfold, it soon becomes apparent that David and Georgia’s marriage fell apart because it didn’t meet all of those requirements. But here, the film presents a counterargument to this belief by suggesting that just because a couple lacked one of these prerequisites and things didn’t work out for them in the past, that doesn’t mean that they can’t eventually fall in love with each other again under the right conditions. In other words, the idea of a second chance for past lovers isn’t totally outside the realm of possibility.
So, has Ticket to Paradise satisfied my hunger for a new A-list movie star rom-com? It certainly has! Sure, it might not be as memorable or quotable as some of the classics of the genre (e.g. You’ve Got Mail or As Good as It Gets), but that’s okay because fundamentally, it’s a very different kind of film, and I genuinely appreciate the message that it’s trying to get across. Whether or not it will lead to a resurgence in the production of romantic comedies starring big-name actors is anyone’s guess, but as a hopeless romantic, I can only remain hopeful.
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