It is hard to be a hopeless romantic these days. Whether your love life is blissful and remarkable, or wistful and regrettable, good romantic comedies are thinning out in a landscape dominated by big tentpoles where superheroes do superheroic things, direct continuations/remakes/reboots (a.k.a dircontremoots), and films designed to win umpteen Oscars.

Obviously, if you are in the mood for love you can always take a dive in a sea of romantic comedies, genre that started to become popular way back in the 1920’s and 30’s with films like It Happened One Night, continued with screwball comedies like His Girl Friday or A Philadelphia Story, and then with masterpieces like The Apartment, or Breakfast in Tiffany’s. But not every romantic comedy ever released was going to be memorable (just like not all Steven Seagal films were going to be pure filth, Executive Decision was pretty decent, despite Seagal only been there for like five minutes… or, perhaps because of that), and for every Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, Love Actually, and Notting Hill there is a Butlers in Love.

Really, I do not think I needed to add more bad romantic films, as that one from Hallmark surely does the trick.

With the passing of time, and surely as a result of the changes in life and in love, more and more romantic films (like The Big Sick, Her, or Bros) have seen this as an opportunity, thus bringing an update to the genre with a new, fresh, and more realistic outlook on love. However, what about those old-fashioned people who are not so keen on seeing how today’s youth are hooking up? What about the more traditional folk for whom the expression Netfilx and chill, involves a nap while watching something with the soothing sounds of Kevin Hart’s voice? What about them?

Surely, they must have watched Pretty Woman a gazillion times, but in case they need to see Julia Roberts again conquering the heart of her partenaire (now George Clooney, which never does any harm), this time doing something new, yet still a bit old-fashioned, a film like Ticket to Paradise is the key to their hearts. Directed by Ol Parker (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again), Roberts and Clooney get back together after working in Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Money Monster to play the divorced parents of Kaitlyn Dever’s character, who, after a trip to Bali with her best friend (an underused Billie Lourd on her audition to become the next Judy Greer), has fallen in love and suddenly decided to get married. Once they travel to attend the wedding, they will do anything to avoid her daughter making a mistake for the rest of her life.

Despite playing the parents of the character getting married (both Roberts and Clooney could play these roles in their sleep), and not the couple at the core of the romantic plot, Tickets to Paradise makes no mistake and gives them central stage from the get go. Having them as the stars means they are going to get all of the attention, but this is not an issue here, as the film plays to their strengths, to the extent that I am sure it would not have worked without them, as both of them save it from becoming a film you can put in your background as you clean your house, since every time they are on screen you want to see what they do.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Ticket to Paradise is a film that would fade into the background if it were not for its main cast, as everything here seems to have been made in the late nineties, early naughties. However, the fact that the film is extremely predictable is not such a bad thing, as yes, there are clichés and all the tropes of the genre, but nothing here tries to reinvent the wheel, considering that it is perfectly functional as it is.

Perhaps as a result of the times we are living, but watching a film that does what it says on the tin has brought me a sense of comfort knowing that it might not be the romantic comedy we wanted, but the one we deserve. We do not always need to be challenged, there are too many things outside that threaten with making us lose our minds, so if you want to switch off from reality and cover yourself in the film equivalent of a warm blanket and a cup of chocolate, this is the (well-made, safely predictable) film for you.

A throwback to a period of time when everything was simpler, perhaps better -it was neither, we just thought so, though-, Ticket to Paradise is like going back to the place where you grew up in – you know it is not perfect, yet you still feel at home.