Female Film Critics 24/375
Booking Ticket to Paradise is for those of us who yearn for an old-fashioned romantic comedy, starring two of the most appealing movie stars from yesteryear who still have impeccable chemistry. Bali is certainly beautiful but is living in paradise enough to sustain a marriage over the long run? It’s predictable and formulaic but there are enough amusing chuckles along the way to justify a visit.
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At one point in Ticket to Paradise, George Clooney and Julia Roberts hit an outdoor dance floor. He bobs his head up and around like an owl startled from a burrow. Both do the running man, wiggle their arms in a wave, and jump around to early 1990s hip-hop while Roberts uncorks that distinctive laugh. Such goofy shenanigans are few in Ticket to Paradise.The film is pleasant enough if you’re satisfied watching two well-loved stars coast on their charisma in a gorgeous tropical setting.
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It’s kind of hard to say no to anything with George Clooney or Julia Roberts. But when they team up for a rom-com, I’m sold! Like most romantic comedies, I’m sure you see where this story is going. When it comes to rom-coms, it’s not the predictability that is the issue, it’s whether or not we are served a fresh perspective and/or a handful of laughs. Ticket to Paradise offers nothing new story wise and, sadly, not a whole lot of laughs.
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Julia Roberts and George Clooney reunite on the big screen in Ticket to Paradise, a romantic comedy that is so full of cliches it’s like a cheap knockoff. You don’t need to purchase a ticket to this paradise to know where the film is going. Basically it’s bickering and buffoonery. In the end, everyone lives happily ever after…except maybe the audience. You can’t please everyone. A mid movie doze was my Ticket to Paradise.
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This June marks the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in and the political scandal that led to President Richard Nixon’s eventual resignation from office on August 8, 1974. It was a turning point in US history, one in which Martha Mitchell played a role, Martha was the whistleblower wife of former US Attorney General John Mitchell, a close Nixon advisor and ally who was jailed for his complicity in the Watergate case. Two films currently in release commemorate the Watergate events and era by taking another look at Martha’s perspective on Watergate, how it happened and its impact on our nation.
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As far as I know, there will be two seasons of Homecoming, so it is still possible that this wonderfully innovative beginning will collapse into a formulaic conclusion in the next season, marooning us in the older thriller world of simplistic right and wrong. (I hope not.) But the series thus far is so tantalizing that a discussion of the way it touches on current anxieties and blind spots in contemporary America is not premature.
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With the tragic opioid epidemic, the topic of rehabilitation and a family’s dealing with a struggling member certainly merits cinematic attention. But dramatizing the issue with sensitivity, insight, and honesty presents unique challenges. All the more credit, then, to writer/director Peter Hedges for what he achieves in Ben Is Back, starring his Oscar-nominated, real-life son Lucas as recovering addict Ben.
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Julia Roberts says she hopes her latest film will help start conversations about the continuing epidemic of opioid addiction. The Oscar-winning actress plays a mother of a drug-addicted son in Ben Is Back opposite Lucas Hedges, who was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar in 2017.
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It’s not surprising that Julia Roberts rose to the bait of this remake of Juan Jose Campanella’s 2009 Buenos Aires-based
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