When it comes to romantic weddings, look no further than Julia Roberts – she actually eloped as a bride and caused chaos at her best friend's wedding.
Now, in Ticket to Heaven, her character looks back on her daughter's union, destroying the marriage. Written and directed by Ol Parker, Ticket to Heaven brings Roberts together with his romantic comedy, Ocean's Eleven co-star, George Clooney, but what was meant to be an immersion turns into a false free throw.
The ingredients here are the strengths of superstars Roberts and Clooney, who flirt and wink throughout the film as Georgia and David, parents of divorced couples to aspiring college graduate Lily (Caitlin Dever). Before beginning her legal career in Chicago (enough fun after four years of college), Lily decides to eat, pray, and love Bali with her best friend, Zeltic (Billy Lord). But the boat rescue of brilliant seaweed farmer Guede (Maxime Boutier) spoils Lily's plans. The next time her parents see her, she's on Bali and, unbeknownst to her, they end up working together when her wedding is sabotaged.
Everything is explained in the trailer and the premise is a romantic comedy: two people hate each other and then hope to love each other, only this time they love each other and love their daughter so much that they want to see her alone. Not in his youth, he continued his career in America and fell in love with Bali. There are many shows, and yes, the script will explain everything to us as well.
However, there's a little laziness about Ticket to Heaven, which flirts with big jokes and hot situations but doesn't work quite like Sandra Bullock's Lost City. By contrast, Ticket to Heaven has a sad, melancholy, almost melancholy tone as Georgia and David contemplate their marriage that fell apart too soon – or did it happen?
No one delivers a blank monologue in a pitiful hotel bar like Clooney and no one delivers cruel but gentle wisdom like Roberts, but Ticket to Heaven invites them to engage in absurd nonsense like a seaweed cutting contest. Beer dance to hip-hop songs in the 90s.
The illogical tone never works and neither does this character. Their motives for the dissolution of their daughter's marriage are still unclear, and their sympathy is based only on the fact that they are played by two wonderful movie stars. Unfortunately, David and Georgia are still very sympathetic.
The only person who seems to understand the movie she's sharing is Lucas Bravo ("Emily to Paris" and "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris"), who plays Georgia's youngest kid. He knew the movie was meant to be silly and cute and made a brave effort, but it wasn't enough to stop the tide of negative emotions emanating from the central couple.
Clooney and Roberts are masters of comedy and chemistry, but it's clear that Clooney thrives on movies with a serious streak, and Roberts needs a character with a big rhythm or neurosis to shine. Also, Ticket to Heaven spent a lot of time telling us what their problem was rather than showing us it. All this effort was an unfortunate delay.
2 out of 4 stars
