Ticket ins Paradies

Langreview Kurzkritik English Version Fakten + Credits

The romantic comedy genre is one of the oldest in the film sector. For generations, people have been enthusiastic about entertaining heartbreak, which is probably due to the fact that the audience is given the opportunity to escape from the bitter, cold and often loveless reality into pink parallel worlds, which on the one hand satisfy the inner needs for closeness, cordiality and togetherness and on the other hand also get by without much analysis and questioning, thus providing a light and varied programme. Nevertheless, this type of film has been repeatedly declared dead for some years now, and in fact there have been only a few successful productions for around 15 years. In the top 10 highest-grossing flicks of 2022, there is not one film from this spectrum, and in the top 20 most successful romcoms, there are only three flicks made after 2009, two of which works only scored on the Chinese market.^[1]

Alongside NOTTING HILL, ABOUT TIME, THE APARTMENT and FORGET PARIS, it is above all PRETTY WOMAN which stands as a flagship for heartfelt good entertainment and really fired up Julia Roberts’ career in 1990. Since then, she has been included in the list of the 100 greatest film stars of all time by the British magazine Empire and also led the ranking of the highest-paid actresses for a long time. Acting partner George Timothy Clooney, however, is in no way inferior and has secured a regular place at the Oscars® as producer, director, screenwriter and actor. The duo has also been in front of the camera together four times: CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND, MONEY MONSTER and OCEAN’S 11 & 12 have shown that the duo harmonises excellently with each other and therefore herald a promising genre representative with TICKET TO PARADISE.

Here’s what it’s about

It’s Lily’s big day. Today is the graduation ceremony at her university and she is about to take a big and important step into a new life. Of course, there are two people she can’t miss out on: Her parents, who love her more than anything. However, there is a small catch, because Georgia and David divorced at an early age and since then they have avoided any joint activities and have been sniping at each other at every conceivable opportunity. What they both don’t know yet: Only a few months later, they would have to compulsively spend a lot of time together, because Lily meets the man of her dreams on her subsequent big trip and has the ex-spouse come to the wedding. But how can this possibly go well?

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Review

Director Ol Parker has dedicated himself to the rebirth of the romcom and has already shown with his previous directorial efforts IMAGINE ME AND YOU, NOW IS GOOD as well as the second part of MAMMA MIA that he has a knack for schmaltzy romance and heartfelt stories. He now distributes all these skills generously in his new film TICKET INS PARADISE, which he wrote in collaboration with Daniel Pipski especially for the acting duo Julia Roberts and George Clooney. According to his own statements, there was no plan B if the desired casting had not worked out and this is also clearly noticeable, since the characters could probably never have developed this dynamic with a different cast. Clooney and Roberts harmonise splendidly and appear like the perfect imperfect couple who are far from being rusty, stiff or even morbid.

Sharp-tongued dialogue ensures that we receive a veritable firework of gags, which at times hit us so hard that we can hardly stop smiling. However, these are not infrequently through-scripted one-liners that have their charm and repeatedly exhaust the full spectrum of toxic and malicious communication, but at the same time they are also variously familiar from other films and offer few entrancing punchlines. Nevertheless, it should be commended that Parker is almost entirely devoid of vulgar, grotesque, claptrap and slapstick humour, merely provoking an amusing atmosphere with confrontational repartee.

The old stories are brought out again

Not only the nature of the jokes but also the overall story quickly suggests that Parker is responsible for at least part of the MAMMA MIA series, because basically we get an even brighter shining image of the musical, coupled with content elements from AFTER THE WEDDING. Even though the musical portion is considerably smaller and merely focuses on the inclusion of a few well-known songs from recent pop culture, many parallels are quickly recognisable. The whole project mercilessly travels 20 years into the past of film history and digs up stylistic devices that had long since disappeared into mothballs. In particular, the indifference to the appropriation of foreign cultural practices cannot be overlooked in light of the current discussions about the portrayal of indigenous peoples and could strike a sensitive nerve in Germany, even if the production team assures us that any ceremonies depicted were approved by professionals of Balinese culture.

Apart from that, TICKET INS PARADISE takes an extremely privileged perspective and presents us with an all-round sugar-coated world in which money and status play no role whatsoever. Instead, the lives of the entire family are as perfectionist as the immaculate and colourful images we are constantly thrown at us, which fulfil almost all the elements of a romance checklist. Be it the countless sunset scenarios, deep blue waters or dreamlike landscape and holiday pictures, some of which were actually shot in Bali – there is not a moment that does not shine in high gloss. In contrast, it is almost surprising that these shots are peppered with thoroughly animated animals that are not at all up to modern VFX quality.

It’s all just stolen…

The audience need not hope for exciting plot developments either. Instead, the story is already guessed after only a few minutes and does not deviate from the pattern at any point. It literally feels as if you have fallen into a big pot of icing, which is finally also powdered with glitter dust so that even the last cinema guest falls into the film’s clutches. Paul in particular, portrayed by Lucas Bravo, only serves as a MacGuffin and ensures that necessary conflicts are interspersed to keep the story from dramaturgically sinking into total oblivion. Even Kaitlyn Dever, in whom a certain importance is suggested, remains completely faceless and uninteresting and is overshadowed by Roberts and Clooney, both of whom were in turn overly reprimanded by the director and editing, as the end credits sequences clearly show.

Conclusion

Despite much of the criticism that can be found in this film review, TICKET TO PARADISE is a work that offers a pleasant contrast to the many overloaded alternatives in cinema. Ol Parker harks back to earlier cinematic values and sends us on a cinematic journey through time that will work especially well away from today’s youthful generations. A light-hearted and easily digestible time is the result, in which the audience is encouraged not to question anything and to dive blindly into a dumbed-down story that we have seen far too often, but still somehow needed again. It’s hard to accuse the film of anything bad – instead, it should probably just be enjoyed mindlessly and seen as a homage to the many great films of the time.

How did you like the movie?
(5 Bewertungen, Durchschnitt: 5,20 von 10)