By: Andrew Wing

Ticket to Paradise is a 2022 romantic comedy film starring George Clooney (Gravity, Ocean’s Eleven) and Julia Roberts (Notting Hill, Pretty Woman) as a divorced couple who team up to sabotage the impending wedding of their daughter in Bali.

The film is directed by Ol Parker (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again) and written by Parker and Daniel Pipski, while Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart, Dear Evan Hansen), Billie Lourd (Star Wars sequel trilogy, Booksmart), Maxime Bouttier, and Lucas Bravo (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris) also star.

Ticket to Paradise had its world premiere in Barcelona on September 8, 2022, and was released in the United Kingdom on September 20 and in the United States on October 21, by Universal Pictures and Working Title Films. It has grossed $171 million worldwide.

THE GOOD

Ticket to Paradise was nowhere on my radar going into 2022, but once I saw that first initial trailer I knew I had to check this one out. I mean it’s two of the biggest Hollywood stars that are still working today in Julia Roberts and George Clooney in a romantic comedy, and as much as I claim to be a man’s man, I just couldn’t resist. But were these two megastars coming together enough to make for a great romantic comedy? Keep reading to find out!

As much as I enjoyed this movie, I just don’t think I can call it a great romantic comedy, but I’ll dive into why a little later on in the review. But for now, I am going to discuss what I did like about Ticket to Paradise, and what I did like were the performances from the two stars. I mean these two are two of the best to ever do it, so I shouldn’t be surprised, but it was just crazy to see how easy it comes to the two of them. As good as dramatic actors as they are, I was really blown away by their comedic chemistry. I just couldn’t get enough of the bantering and bickering between the two of them, and I hope this isn’t the last time the two of them share the screen together.

As for the other things I liked about Ticket to Paradise, I do want to give some praise to the director Ol Parker who also co-wrote the screenplay with Daniel Pipski. This film isn’t some groundbreaking achievement in direction, but I did think that the film was nicely edited, especially during the comedic scenes and continuing with the comedy, I thought all of the jokes were fantastic and I laughed at every single one of them. Aside from that, the only other thing with Ticket to Paradise that I wanted to shout out was the cinematography that was done by Ole Birkeland, which showed the viewer just how beautiful Bali truly is, and also the score that was composed by one of the best, Lorne Balfe.

THE BAD

Now I know I said how much I enjoyed Ticket to Paradise, and I hate to be a party pooper, but this film was just so generic. I mean at the end of the day, the film is selling Julia Roberts and George Clooney, and they are both great, but I just had some problems with the film. For starters, you just know how the film is going to end from the time you watch the trailer, but if not that, then the first act of the movie. More than that, and this isn’t something I was expecting to complain about with this movie being a romantic comedy, but I did not buy a single second of the film’s romance, whether it was between Roberts and Clooney’s characters, or their daughter and her fiancé and that was really disappointing.

THE VERDICT

Despite being pretty generic and having lackluster romance, Ticket to Paradise is still an enjoyable, easy-to-recommend movie that features good performances from the two megastars, Julia Roberts and George Clooney, whose bickering and bantering alone is worth giving this a watch.