Doing rom-coms can be a tricky business. The escapist-fantasy genre has acquired such an incredibly inert trajectory through the year that it’s hard to pinpoint where it all went wrong. Now, the genre has become all about being self-aware of its cliches, and/or being a telling of how problematic the entire thing of ‘finding the one true love’ actually is. This has not just made the rom-com genre feel like it has taken a turn for worse, but also that the handful of movies that take us back to the 90s (the golden era of the rom-com) are in some way taking a wrong turn. Ol Parker’s ‘Ticket to Paradise’ is trying to bring that rom-com back, but is it taking all the right steps? Well, that’s on your to find out.
Ticket to Paradise Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Ticket to Paradise opens with David (George Clooney) & Georgia (Julia Roberts) narrating their tale of getting married to their respective colleagues. While it feels like a perfect meet-cute at the onset, the story eventually leads to more murky waters and we get to know that the meet-cute that they had 25 years ago led to a surprising marriage, but never manifested into a happy one.
David who is a high-end architect and Georgia, who is an esteemed art dealer have successful professional lives, but they have been separate for years and only have bouts of bitterness for each other. The only thing common in the ex-couple’s life is their daughter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever), who they both dearly adore.
However, Lily is about to graduate, and the ceremony brings the two of them together. While Lily ensures that they don’t have to face each other, the sitting plan at the Ceremony places them right on the square with each other. The two are seated beside each other and their competitive, bitter attitude is quite evident. While they try to be supportive of their daughter, their hate for one another is established through this sequence alone.
Cut to the opening credit and Lily is all set for her vacation to Bali with her roommate cum best friend Wren (Billie Lourd). The girls have worked hard for their graduation and the vacation to Bali allows them to have fun before they settle into working life like their parents.
However, life has other plans for Lily. In spite of being a studious kid who plans to turn this vacation into a work vacation, Lily falls in love. She meets a local sea-weed farmer named Gede (Maxime Bouttier) and sparks fly. A few sequences establish the comfort and chemistry they have with each other, and the next we know, they decide to get married.
This rattles both David and Georgia, who meet again on their flight to Bali. While they still resent each other, they are on the same page about their daughter getting married so early on in her life.
Why do David and Georgia decide to team up in spite of hating each other?
Since both of them have been through a marriage that started too soon and ended too early, they don’t want their daughter to have the same fate. So, both of them decide to team up during their flight to Bali, deciding to have a united front when it comes to forcing themselves into ways that can ruin their daughter’s special day.
The strategy they apply is truly despicable if you ask me. The exes forge a plan that includes them being totally okay with the marriage at the outset – the two of them pretend to be truly supportive, but deep down they are both plotting ways to derail the marriage before it even happens.
What do they do to derail Lily’s marriage?
Both David and Georgia decide on a strategy to first plant some doubt in Gede’s mind. When they first meet him, David approaches to talk to him and tells them that their marriage won’t last because Lily is an ambitious girl who wouldn’t want to live in this paradise (read: Bali) for too long. He also adds that, before he knows it, she will be planning to leave for a place that has a work culture and can encompass her ambitions that are way beyond just seaweed farming.
While this ploy does leave a little doubt in Gede’s mind, it is not enough for him to run away from it. So, Georgia decides to take the next step. The next of many traditional rituals for the marriage includes a ring ceremony where the groom’s little brother is supposed to carry the ring until its time for them to facilitate the bride and groom with it.
Georgia decides to use one of her older slit-banana-peel tricks to lure the children. She then carefully steals the ring away from Gede’s younger cousin, leading to the ritual getting disturbed.
Who is Paul? Why does he come to Bali?
We meet Paul for the first time on David and Georgia’s flight to Bali. He is a pilot who is unconditionally in love with Georgia. So much so that his character becomes like someone who is ready to agree to anything their partner says, leading their relationship into toxicity.
However, after somehow managing to safely land them in Bali, we meet Paul the morning after David and Georgia get really drunk and end up sleeping in the same bed. Paul is there, not just to surprise her, but to propose to her for marriage.
The first time he proposes to Georgia is in the temple which all of them visit on an off day. That is where he is bitten by a poisonous snake and is taken to the emergency unit. The next time he does it, he accidentally elbows Gerogria in the nose.
How does Lily find out that Georgia had stolen the rings?
After Paul is rushed to the emergency unit, the rest of them continue to the final destination of their day’s tour. Georgia who was in the emergency unit with Paul decides to join them at the last moment. So, when the four of them – Gede, Lily, Georgia, and David are up there appreciating the beauty of the paradise, they realize that their boat, which David claims to have tied up to the shore, is drifting away.
Since it is one of the secluded spots, they are forced to stay the night until someone shows up in the morning. When the quadruple is about to pitch a tent, Lily goes into Georgia’s bag to check for a light and finds the rings instead.
Ticket to Paradise Movie Ending, Explained:
Do David and Georgia succeed in ruining Lily’s marriage?
The straight answer is no. In spite of their best effort, David and Georgia fail to ruin or break up Lily’s marriage. However, many speculative measures are taken while they reach there, with both Lily and Gede questioning whether they should get married or not. But that has more to do with cold feet than David and Georgia’s cunning tricks.
The ending of Ticket to Paradise shows us that Lily, in spite of her initial speculations, comes to the conclusion that staying in this place with Gede will actually be the biggest and most important decision of her life. Seeing Lily through to this point, both David & Georgia have also stopped resenting each other all that much. In fact, the trip, in some way has brought them closer together.
So, the marriage rituals take place and Lily and Gede get married when Lily takes the final step of piercing a dagger into an offering plate.
What happens to David & Georgia?
The final sequence of the film shows all the guests including David & Georgia taking the ferry that takes them to the mainland. When they bid their goodbyes and take the ferry along with Wren and the others, Georgia tells David that she has declined Paul’s offer to marry her. So, in a moment of impulse both of them come to some kind of mutual decision and jump off the ferry midway.
The ending signifies that the two of them either decide to spend a few more days in Paradise and see if they can rekindle the chemistry that they have rediscovered, or it simply means that the two of them are ready to enter a new phase of life that allows them to forgive each other and start anew.
Read More: Don’t Worry Darling Movie Ending, Explained
Ticket to Paradise Trailer
Ticket to Paradise (2022) Movie Links – IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes
Ticket to Paradise (2022) Movie Cast – George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Kaitlyn Dever, Maxime Bouttier, Billie Lourd, Lucas Bravo
Where to watch Ticket to Paradise
