It’s Friday night at the Indiana movie theater. The last time I came here, I was the only person in the theater and that is what I expected to find tonight. Instead, I was met with a group of late 20’s couples who decided that their date night would be to see the Julia Roberts and George Clooney Rom-Com. I got my popcorn and settled into my seat to enjoy the movie. I am a bit of a rom-com connoisseur and was looking forward to this movie.
Hollywood is entering the rom-com renaissance and I am here for it. I grew up watching Julia Robert’s charm everyone in Notting Hill, so I knew that she was going to bring it home in Ticket to Paradise. Now George Clooney is another story, I just don’t see him as the romantic interest in a story, but luckily this story didn’t rely on Clooney being some dreamboat hunk of a great guy for Roberts to fall for. The story follows Clooney and Roberts who have been divorced for 19 years as they travel to Bali for their daughter’s wedding (played by the wonderful Kaitlyn Dever). They intend to stop the wedding as they think that their new college graduate daughter is too young to get married. What ensues is a series of hijinks to stop a wedding, but as a touching showing of Indonesian wedding traditions.
The story isn’t complex but still, tugs at the heartstrings and, in true rom-com fashion, makes me want to fall in love. It was a fun 104 minutes that includes a random ’90s dance scene, a freeze frame ending, and bloopers during the credits. It truly feels like the rom-com of the early 2000s and I cannot wait for more!
4/5 stars!