Movies from the Heart—Ticket to Paradise

I’ve been talking about a sort of sub-genre of romantic films for the last couple of weeks—those made for older audiences. With a large aging population, you’d think there’d be more films with older adults in the lead, but when it comes to romantic films that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Why is that? Well, I wonder if it isn’t the cringe factor. By that I mean what young people do when they are forced to acknowledge the romantic life of their parents—or, even worse, grandparents! It’s kind of become a cliché in films to have a younger character cringe at the idea that their older relative has a romantic—read sexual—life.

The thing is, they’ll grow up and find that romance is ageless… but when they’re young I think they believe that true romance is what they feel and older adults? Well, they’re over the hill and can’t possibly feel what people of their generation feel.

So there’s a bit of a romance generation gap going on here. And I have to wonder if that doesn’t extend inside the studios and production offices of Hollywood—the places where decisions are made about what movies will be greenlit.

But one way to greenlight a movie where the demographic is that older audience is to have star power behind it. Such is the case with the film I’m going to focus on this week, Ticket to Paradise starring Julia Roberts and George Clooney.

Audiences love this pairing. Take a look at how they interact in this trailer for the film.

This movie is a one-note joke. Divorced mom and dad think their brilliant daughter is throwing her promising career away by getting married to a guy in Bali, a fisherman, and staying there to live. And the other part of the story? Mom and dad TOTALLY can’t stand each other—actively despise each other. But they agree on one thing—they need to break up their daughter’s relationship and thus save her from a huge mistake, so they work together to make that happen.

This movie did well at the box office. It tripled its budget. Why? Because it was a great story? Not really. As one reviewer said, the funniest part of the film was the outtakes. But audiences loved Julia and George together in the Oceans series of movies and putting them together in this made it a hit.

The other advantage of this film is its location. As more than one reviewer said, it’s like a vacation to Bali.

But here’s the thing—as a writer you can’t count on some big stars swooping in to save your movie. You have to write a script that’s good enough for ANY star—great or mediocre. So don’t bemoan the fact that films like A Ticket to Paradise get made—write your own romantic film about an older couple… show the world what a good story is and you’ll find it’s almost actor proof!

Next week we’re going to look at two films for the older audience: Book Club and Book Club: Next Chapter.

Copyright © Diane Lake

09Mar25

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