This week brings a couple of much anticipated reunions to the big screen — in the same movie. “Ticket to Paradise” marks the reunion of megastars Julia Roberts and George Clooney, who shared a smart and sizzling chemistry in “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Ocean’s Twelve,” and it is also the reunion of Julia Roberts with the rom-com, a genre that she essentially defined in her career.
“Ticket to Paradise,” which is written and directed by “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” director Ol Parker, stars Roberts and Clooney as a pair of acrimoniously divorced parents who come together at their daughter’s wedding in Bali with a plan to sabotage the nuptials. It’s a welcome return for Roberts to comedy, as she’s focused more on dramas and television in the past few years, and Clooney to the big screen, as he was last seen in the 2020 Netflix film “The Midnight Sky,” which he also directed.
We all know Roberts is one of the queens of the rom-com, with a string of classics in the ‘90s to her name, and “Ticket to Paradise” is a good a reason as any to celebrate with a streaming marathon of her best rom-coms. Her 1988 breakout role was in “Mystic Pizza,” a comedy about friendship and romance and coming of age while working in a pizza joint, co-starring Lili Taylor and Annabeth Gish. Stream it on HBO Max. But 1990 brought what was Roberts’ true star turn, in Garry Marshall’s classic Pygmalion/“My Fair Lady” riff “Pretty Woman.” Roberts plays Vivian, the working girl with the heart of gold who gets a makeover and falls in love with a client played by Richard Gere. Rent it on all digital platforms.
From 1997 to 2001, Roberts owned the rom-com, starting with “My Best Friend’s Wedding” in 1997 (streaming on Peacock), co-starring Rupert Everett, Dermot Mulroney, and Cameron Diaz, and inspiring misbegotten marriage pacts the world over. In 1999, she starred opposite Hugh Grant in the Richard Curtis-scripted, Roger Michell-directed “Notting Hill” (streaming on Peacock), and also reunited with Marshall and Gere on “Runaway Bride” (streaming on Netflix). In 2001, she fell in love on screen with John Cusack, playing a harried publicist to a couple of feuding movie stars, played by Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones in “America’s Sweethearts,” streaming on Hulu.
In 2001 and 2004, the chemistry between Roberts and Clooney was just part of the appeal of the ensemble Vegas heist comedies “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Ocean’s Twelve” (2004), directed by Stephen Soderbergh. All the “Ocean’s” movies, including “Thirteen” are streaming on Netflix.
Clooney, a screen charmer himself, surprisingly only has one rom-com under his belt—the 1996 film “One Fine Day,” in which he and Michelle Pfeiffer portray harried New York City single parents who manage to find time to fall in love (streaming on Starz). But Clooney has steamed up the screen with plenty of megastars, including Jennifer Lopez, in that infamous trunk scene in Stephen Soderbergh’s 1998 crime caper “Out of Sight” (streaming on Starz). He also starred opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones in the Coen Bros’ romantic crime comedy “Intolerable Cruelty” (also streaming on Starz).
“Ticket to Paradise” just might inspire a trip down memory lane for two of our biggest movie stars, whose classic romantic movies stand the test of time.
———
