Ticket to Paradise (2022)

Fluffy and fun, this light entertainment won us over with Julia Roberts and George Clooney as sniping ex-spouses reluctantly joining forces to try to prevent their daughter from making what they agree would be a mistake. Kaitlyn Dever is the sensible daughter and Billie Lourd is her boozy best friend Wren. Male eye candy (besides Clooney) is provided by Maxime Bouttier as Gede (pronounced G'day) and Lucas Bravo as Paul.

Directed by Ol Parker and co-written by him and Daniel Pipski, it mixes witty dialogue with rom-com tropes and the gorgeous sets and locations in Bali and Australia are a joy to behold, as shot by Ole Bratt Birkeland.

Lorne Balfe's score can be streamed on Apple Music and probably elsewhere, and there are also lots of songs, some of which are listed here.

Don't miss the outtakes during the end credits and I appreciated (after watching this movie) this fun spoiler-ridden discussion of the production.

Roberts was last blogged for Ben Is Back, Clooney for The Midnight Sky, Dever for Outside In, and Parker for writing The Second Best Marigold Hotel after directing and writing both Mamma Mias, though I gave short shrift to the first and maybe I didn't see the second? 

Balfe was most recently in these pages for scoring Belfast. Lourd, Carrie Fisher's daughter, was in Booksmart with Dever; Bouttier, a former model, is new to me; and I know Bravo from twenty episodes of Emily in Paris. This is Pipski's screenwriting debut and Birkeland shot Judy, though I failed to mention him in the post, which is almost as short as the one I wrote for Mamma Mia.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are ready to exchange their tickets, with an average of 57%, while its audiences are joining us in paradise with an 87% average. It's still playing in a few theatres but we rented it on Apple TV/iTunes November 22.