Review: Julia Roberts and George Clooney put their hearts into 'Ticket to Paradise'

If anyone can bring the romcom back big time, bet on Julia Roberts and George Clooney.

"Ticket to Paradise," only in theaters, is hardly a classic -- think of a punctured helium balloon sputtering to the ground after a promising start. Still, in these troubled times of clickable snark and cynicism, don't knock a blast of screwball escapism that, however flimsy, allows two astral projections of talent and good looks to sprinkle their combined stardust on the dimmest of storylines.

Roberts plays gallery owner Georgia and Clooney is architect David, a divorced couple whose main form of communication is zinging barbs at each other. They split after five years, but David claims that nearly two decades later he's still in recovery.

The two have united now to destroy the wedding, in tropical Bali, of their law-school grad daughter Lily (the reliably terrific Kaitlyn Dever) to Gede (Maxime Bouttier), a hottie local seaweed farmer she met on vacation on Gede's island home off the coast of Indonesia.

By the way, Bali looks gorgeous. But sticklers for truth in advertising should know that due to pandemic restrictions, the movie was shot in Queensland, Australia. Hooray for Hollywood!

David and Georgia don't object to Gede as a person of color -- "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" is so last century -- only that he and Lily are too immature for marriage. They should know, having been college sweethearts who married before they grew to know each other as people.

As far as retro plots go, this is one seems strung together out of leftovers from 1960s comic romances with Doris Day and Rock Hudson. You can tell from outer space that director-cowriter Ol Parker ("Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again") will abide by PG-13 rules of engagement that keep raunch at bay and feelings in full closeup.

For complications, we get David being bitten by a dolphin and busting drunken moves with Georgia on the dance floor, who also has a fling with Paul ("Emily in Paris" favorite Lucas Bravo), a young pilot who will never be a genuine threat to the reconciliation of Georgia and David that's been in the cards since Scene One.

If you're a viewer for whom familiarity breeds contempt, then "Ticket to Paradise" is not for you. But if you're in the mood to watch crazy rich white people enjoy their privileges away from pesky real-world issues that spoil the fun, then you've found your ticket to ride.

Clooney, 61, is not exactly a romcom guy, as 1996's "One Fine Day" abundantly proved, but his comic touch can be edgy ("Up in the Air") or broad ("O Brother, Where Art Thou"), and he brought a sophisticated snap to his scenes with Roberts in two of his Danny Ocean capers.

Roberts, 54, is romcom royalty. From "Pretty Woman" to "My Best Friend's Wedding" and "Notting Hill," she is even more dexterous with one-liners. It's intriguing that both stars won their only acting Oscar for heavy drama -- she for "Erin Brockovich," he for "Syriana."

Nowadays, romcoms are struggling, as witness the recent failures of JLo's "Marry Me" and Billy Eichner's gay-themed "Bros." Can the sight of two gorgeously aging A-listers falling out of love and then in again rekindle the magic?

Only time and box office will tell. Thanks to the laughs and the empathy provided by its two stars, "Ticket to Paradise" reminds us of the simple pleasures we've been missing. Roberts and Clooney put their hearts into this one and my guess is audiences will return the favor.