Ticket to Paradise (2022)

Directed by Ol Parker. Starring George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Kaitlyn Dever, Maxime Bouttier, Billie Lourd, Lucas Bravo, Agung Pindha, Ifa Barry, Geneviève Lemon, Cintya Dharmayanti. [PG-13]

Clooney and Roberts are a bickering divorced couple who jet off to Bali to stop their daughter from marrying a local she met while vacationing there, only to eventually discover a spark still exists between them. Tired formula rom-com clomps through the motions, relying solely on star-wattage and scenery to save the day; the lush paradise is lovely to gawk at, but the usually photogenic leads are less so—they look so red in the face in most shots (even the early ones set in the U.S.), I can only assume they got sunburnt shooting on location and the makeup department didn’t bother to help. The constant sniping has some bite, but no snap, and only a small handful of the remarks elicit a smile or a chuckle (nary a genuine laugh to be found in the entire movie); I was left utterly indifferent over whether the two of them would end up together, which is fatal for this frothy sub-genre. Meanwhile, I actively rooted against the coupling of daughter Dever and seaweed farmer Bouttier, who are both as boring as can be individually and have all the young-lust heat of chemically-castrated siblings. Sell these tickets back to the travel agency and stay home in your sweats instead. Clooney co-executive produced.

36/100