I once thought Ticket to Paradise would offer something different.
Yes, it is a romcom, and it starred Julia Roberts and George Clooney; and yes, the premise sounds too familiar - divorced parents trying to stop their freshly graduated daughter marrying some strangers to him in a far away land. This had been seen and done too many times, but then it is a no brainer romcom, so I thought it would be a good time killer on a flight.
However, I was wrong.
The rollercoaster ride of plots was one disappointing turn followed by another.
The thing is, it actually started off with quite a bit of promise, as it seems that the producers and writer are going to mark a departure from cliche. I mean, I am satisfied enough for it to be a cliche, as that’s what most romcoms from Hollywood are. But a slight offering of departure from that was always welcome.
The film invoked an interracial marriage in a foreign land, casting and Indonesian French model that is insanely good looking and that it doesn’t make sense - according to Julia Roberts’ Georgie, was a good set up for a different kind of romcom. To be honest, Julia Roberts and George Clooney trying to break up the engagement and wedding was completely stereotypically predictable. What I think could make the foreign setting great also just descended into your typical Hollywood caricature - making fun of the language difference, presenting local rituals and culture as spices on the top of storytelling etc. , didn’t give the movie any credibility even when it was built upon this very unique foundation.
You can’t fault Maxime Bouttier for any of this. He was just employed as an actor, probably for his good looks, charm and ability to speak Indonesian. However, there was so much more potential for this character and his relationship with Kaitlyn Dever’s Lily. Lily felt that she was in the right place, at the right time, with the right person. That’s fair enough. But not investigating her instinctive choice against this strange Indonesian seaweed farmer further was another huge missed opportunity. I wish there were more in depth exploration between the two, and honestly I felt like I was more invested in them than Georgie and David’s (George Clooney) bickering, though their passive aggressiveness and at times pure aggression were fun to watch.
Another huge disappointment for me in the movie was Georgie’s relationship with the young, again ridiculously good looking French pilot Paul (played by the funny and charming Lucas Bravo). First of all, Paul is a fully qualified captain with 4 stripes, so it was beyond my comprehension that why did they have to portray him as a male version of a witless bimbo? This does not make sense at all. And then we have Georgie’s reserved reaction to his proposal but while risking her life to save him when he was bitten by a venomous snake. Paul surmised what happened in Bali between Georgie and David but still went through with the proposal and professed his love. Why would Georgie still have second thoughts about this man - a successful international pilot, who is ridiculously good looking and loves her with all his heart? For me an irrefutable and successful relationship between an older woman and a much younger man will be such a groundbreaking plot in Hollywood. Why did Ticket to Paradise opt for an age old cliche simply because it was Julia Roberts and George Clooney?
When I went through all these unnecessarily cliche and stereotypical Hollywood romcom rollercoaster throughout the whole movie, I just got more and more agitated than exhilarated. There was so much potential, but the producers were so willing to throw everything away to appease standard romcom formula, which I think completely destroyed what the movie could be.
That leaves behind the question - can Hollywood studios tell original, interesting stories anymore when it was presented with an opportunity to deviate from the norm?
