We’re only about 20 minutes into the half-baked, ultra-lightweight, almost instantly forgettable rom-com “Ticket to Paradise” when our hearts start to sink, as we realize this big-screen re-teaming of Julia Roberts and George Clooney is quite likely going to be sideswiped and eventually sunk by a leaden screenplay that doesn’t come close to maximizing their massive respective star power.
Alas, those suspicions are confirmed. Despite the delight we feel in seeing Clooney and Roberts together again (in addition to the first two “Oceans” movies, they were both in Clooney’s directorial debut, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” and they shared the screen in 2016’s “Money Monster”), they’re saddled playing shallow, puerile, narcissistic characters who behave like they’re scheming idiots in a mediocre 1970s TV show. My guess is director/co-writer Ol Parker was going for a 21st century take on classic screwball comedies such as “The Philadelphia Story” and “The Awful Truth,” but the paper-thin plot of “Ticket to Paradise” is more like a segment of “The Love Boat” or “Love, American Style,” stretched into a feature-length film and filled with creaky one-liners and low-level physical shtick that almost cries out for a laugh track.
