Ticket to Paradise (2022)

The only reason I had any interest in this film is it is set in Bali. This, as I expected, turned out to be a huge disappointment. The only scene in the whole film that may have been flimed in Bali, was when they went to Tanah Lot. Other than that, the film appears to be shot entirely in Australia. This is a hollywood ideal of Bali / a tropical island, with nothing but nature, no infrastrcuture. Once again, Hollywood has created an idealize view of a tropical paradise, and picked and choosed parts of the culutre, which is extremely sparse in this film. While the subtitles listed the characters as speaking in Balinese, I highly doubt they were speaking in Balinese, but were more likely speaking in Indonesian, as I recognized a few words, when they were speaking. Scenes of the landscape and temples were basically nonexistant, along with the culture, as the didn't show any Balinese dance nor any gamelan music, and only a slight bit of the trasitional clothing. While they did show the groom getting his teeth filed down, and this is a cultural practice, I thought this was done when Balinese people were much younger, an not releated to getting married in anyway. Also, while they had a great opportunity for the white bride to dress up in traditional Balinese wedding attire, they choose instead to have her wear a western wedding dress, which while appropreate for a wedding in Hawaii, would be consider highly inapprorate for a Balinese wedding. And while the main actor who played the Balinese groom, was actually half Indonesian, and a few other actors were actually Indonesian, the majority of the actors were of other Asian races. And it appears that none of the actors were actually Balinese. Nearly all of those actors spoke perfect English, without any Indonesaian, or Balinese accent, once again sanitizing a potential internatioanl experience for American audiences. After watching the film, I was suprised that Billy Lourd was in the film. I didn't recognize her, but I am not that familar with her, and she did appear like that she was in her 30s in the film, and perhaps a little bit too old for this role. Actually, I wasn't really aware of her when she appeared in the Star Wars sequels, thought I do hope the daughter of Carrie Fisher has a prosperous career. This film is merely a vehilce for George Clooney and Julia Roberts, with all the other characters being minor background characters, including Bali itself. Julia Roberts is past her prime, and I don't know of any film she has made since Pretty Woman that I would even consider worth watching. I think she has just been riding out the sucess of that film, to keep her career going, and I don't know of anyone who is a big fan of her work, especailly anyone who is male. You would do much better watching the Road to Bali (1952), if you want even the smallest taste of the real beauty and culture of Bali.