MYCANAL – TUESDAY JUNE 6 – ON DEMAND – FILM
The title of Ol Parker’s film promises heaven. Here are reunited again two glamorous chic stars (Julia Roberts and George Clooney) whose power of seduction has not yielded anything over the years, this time for a sentimental comedy in the pure tradition. A genre which, since Pretty Woman (1990), by Garry Marshall, particularly suits Julia Roberts. His radiant lightness, his sense of rhythm and derision find here, with George Clooney, their perfect and distinguished echo.
Despite the weaknesses of the scenario and the facilities it sometimes abuses, despite the tinsel and the bombastic effects of the staging, the charm works. The duo take us on board, because it’s her, because it’s him. And not only. This is above all due to a dynamic of bodies and language, a common irony that passes the ball to each other, a complicity in the game and the – contagious – pleasure it provides. Even better when these two, in the story, hate each other.
Born of love at first sight, their union only lasted five years, and that was a long time ago. Since then, more than two decades have passed, during which David (George Clooney) and Georgia (Julia Roberts), separately settled in a comfortable New York life, have not stopped turning the vestiges of their love into existential hatred.
Coconut palms and circles
For the graduation of their daughter, Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) – the only success of their brief marriage – they agreed to be reunited and promised to keep quiet. A commitment that they honour, from the university ceremony to the take-off of the plane, aboard which their offspring are, leaving for a well-deserved stay in Bali.
Change of scenery, change of pace. Launched on the hats of wheels, Ticket to Paradise, in Lily’s footsteps, slows down, languishes in the sun, turns into a tourist infomercial. Beaches, coconut trees, straw huts on stilts come to serve us on a platter a romance with rose water. Lily and Gede (Maxime Bouttier), an island seaweed farmer, are attracted at first sight. For him, she is ready to give up her career as a lawyer and settle permanently in Bali. The wedding date is set. First informed of the news, Georgia and David take the plane for Indonesia, decided to team up, the time it takes this time, to prevent their daughter from making the same mistake as them.
It is there, in this postcard setting, that the film puts down its suitcases and really begins, gradually adjusting its cruising speed to the spontaneous and contradictory actions, the shoddy tricks and the couple’s departures from the road. The destination is included in the program, the outcome known in advance but delayed at will. So it is with romantic comedies. Their recipe, kitsch and sweet as candy, repeats each time the slightly guilty pleasure, and not quite fooled, of being taken in by it. That’s also what we like.
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