Ticket to Paradise is an easy ride. Stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts give us exactly what we are looking for – a romantic comedy that shines brightly like a trip to a sunny place.
The film is a banter-filled rom-com starring two of the world’s biggest superstars as ever-sniping divorced parents. They follow their daughter to Bali in an attempt to save her from a fate similar to theirs, as she plans to marry a local and abandon her career plans.
Clooney and Roberts’ characters can barely stand each other, and to lubricate the situation, there’s a lot of drinking – at bars, restaurants, parties and on planes – a few times straight from a bottle or while playing a variation of beer pong. Drunken hilarity ensues.
It is always fun to watch Clooney and Roberts work their magic, but according to one reviewer, the true star in Ticket to Paradise is Bali.
“What a location! Looking at it, it’s easy to see why everyone signed on to this movie. After this film had come to a close, I was quick to quote Liz Lemon of 30 Rock fame: ‘I want to go to there!’”
And with the rain upon us, who doesn’t want a trip to paradise?
Fire of Love is a poem of matrimony and magma, following Katia and Maurice Krafft, a married team of volcanologist-filmmakers.
Their work started in the late 1960s and ended in 1991 when a pyroclastic flow on Japan’s Mt. Unzen wiped them out along with a group of 41 scientists, firefighters and journalists.
A writer once described them as “travelling performer volcanologists,” and they liked the description and found truth in it. This movie leans into the idea, linking them to a long tradition of naturalist filmmakers that includes Jacques Cousteau.
They loved each other, they loved volcanoes and they understood the risk of their pursuit. Operating at the intersection of science and poetry, the danger of the eruptions was part of the attraction.
The remarkable footage in the film captures not only the drama of the volcanoes they loved, but the bond of their shared passion.
Ticket to Paradise, which is rated PG, plays at the Patricia Theatre from November 11 to 15 at 7 pm. Running time is one hour and 44 minutes.
Fire of Love, also PG, plays at the Patricia on November 16 at 7 pm, and at 1:30 and 7 pm on November 17. Running time is one hour and 33 minutes.
This week at the Patricia, Black Adam is playing on November 7 and 8 at 7 pm. Peace by Chocolate screens at 7 pm on November 9, and at 1:30 and 7 pm on November 10.
Gary Shilling is executive director of qathet Film Society (formerly Powell River Film Society).
