Julia Roberts and George Clooney Bring Back Big Rom-Com Feels in Ticket to Paradise

Julia Roberts and George Clooney are bringing back Hollywood’s big rom-com feels in Ticket to Paradise and it feels like the year 2001: we’re all swooning over American rom-coms starring Hollywood’s blockbuster superstars such as Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jon Cusack, and Hugh Grant. 

Ticket to Paradise stars blockbuster actors Julia Roberts and George Clooney along with Kaitlyn Dever (known for her roles in hit series Unbelievable and Dopesick) and Indonesian actor Maxime Bouttier who makes his Hollywood debut in the movie. 

Ticket to Paradise: Synopsis

Directed by Ol Parker, George Clooney and Julia Roberts have reunited on-screen as David and Georgia, a divorced couple who seemingly only agree on one thing: their love for their daughter Lily (Dever). When Lily meets and falls in love with a seaweed farmer named Gede (Bouttier) on her graduation trip to Bali and tells her parents that she’s going to marry him, there’s only one thing they can do: team up to stop her from making the same mistake they made all those years ago.

George and Julia’s warring couple would make one yearn for second chances. Clooney says. “In all the years since he and Georgia divorced, the fire is still there for him, but he’s convinced that Georgia has moved on and that he needs to make peace with that. She has a new boyfriend and a new life without him, and he doesn’t want to risk the hurt of being shut down or making things more complicated than they already are, and more than anything, he doesn’t want to compromise his relationship with his daughter Lily.”

Setting

The scenery is set in Bali but filmed in Australia due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, it makes us want to pack our bags for a beach getaway.  Bouttier hopes it will serve as a reminder to tourists about the beauty of Balinese culture. “It’s a very lighthearted script, something we’ve been needing in the world,” Bouttier says. “Ever since COVID hit, Bali’s tourism has faded to a complete halt. Even now, Bali is still struggling to get tourism back, so a movie like this that’s set in Bali in a romcom format will hopefully invite the world back into Bali.”

Casting Indonesian actor Maxime Bouttier for the role of Gede is on-point.  Bouttier, in his Hollywood movie debut appreciated that the character was both open-minded and culturally connected to his customs. “Gede works as a seaweed farmer because he knows that it's a give-and-take deal with nature, and I feel that’s a very Balinese way of life,” Bouttier says. 

Ticket To Paradise is from Universal Pictures International and will open nationwide in local cinemas on October 5.