Tag / Romantic Comedy

by theactivespectator

Ticket to Paradise – Review. 

Rating: 12A                                                                                                                                                       Cast: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Kaitlyn Dever, Maxime Bouttier and Billie Lourde.                     Directed by Ol Parker.                                                                                                                             Written by Ol Parker and Daniel Pipski.                                                                          Length: 104mins. 

Ticket to Paradise is a contemporary romantic comedy that see’s Georgia (Roberts) and David (Clooney) as bitter ex’s, thrown together again when they find out that their daughter has fallen in love in Bali on her post-graduation trip, and decided to get married to a local seaweed farmer instead of return to the US to become a lawyer.  

We are given a solid understanding of the unhappy split between our two movie parents early on in the film, as well as a glimpse at the strain it’s put on their daughter (Dever). They do a good job at not rushing into the main story – it’s a fairly run of the mill rom com in that we can see from the trailer, possibly even the poster, the main events, but I found the backstory/ run up to the engagement actually really helpful in moving this film out of ‘just a cheesy rom com’ and into a genuinely amusing story with real people type characters rather than just archetypes. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of clichés and a couple of exaugurated, cartoonish characters but that’s not the attention pulling factor.  

Obviously, the main draw of this film is it’s cast. George Clooney and Julia Roberts are amazing. While not the deepest script or characters to dig into they approach their roles with all of their experience and it shows. The comic timing and commitment is just at the right level and I can only imagine being another actor on that set and just watching the masterclass unfold. 

Parker’s script, co-written with Daniel Pipski, is more sentimental than it is humorous. It’s rooted in a parent’s fear that their children are such perfect remakes of themselves that they’re bound to repeat the same mistakes, which again, adds layers to this lovely, picturesque world and avoids the laziness of ‘easy’ rom com writing. Although more sentimental, the humour is definitely there, more in the language that the more slapstick moments like the vicious dolphin attack…but there’s enough in there to keep things light.  

All in all it’s just a solid film for its genre. I know some people will think it’s weak if they don’t particularly enjoy romantic comedies but to look at it within it’s genre, I think it’s really quite strong. It feels like it’s a movie that Ol Parker wanted to make, the care in the details makes it more in line with the era of solid romantic comedies, rather than the more cheesey ‘Hallmark’ type films we see much more regularly today.  

by theactivespectator

Sabrina (1954) – Review

Rating: U Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, William Holden and John Williams Directed by Billy Wilder Written by Billy Wilder, Ernest Lehman and Samuel Taylor Length: 113mins

Sabrina is a somewhat archetypal romantic comedy. It tells the story of a young girl, the daughter of a chauffeur who has eyes for the youngest son of her fathers employer. While growing up on the extravagant grounds of the Larrabee family home, Sabrina (Hepburn) longs to gain the attention of  David Larrabee (Holden); the resident wild child and polar opposite of his older brother, Linus (Bogart), who’s focus is purely on maintaining and expanding the family business empire. Sabrina is sent to cookery school in Paris in the hopes that she’ll forget David, but returns an elegant young woman with the ability to turn heads and capture the attention she’s so longed for.

It is impossible to comment on this film without discussing the cast. Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart  are nothing short of phenomenal. Their characters are so wonderfully authentic, drifting through their story and switching between the more serious moments to the more comical  so smoothly. Holden’s portrayal of David matches up to his co-stars just as well, with the only slight blip being the staff at the Larrabee house were slightly heightened which distracts from the more naturalistic telling of the story.

One of the more understated wonders of this film is the script; based upon the play ‘Sabrina Fair’ written by Samuel Taylor in 1953 and adapted for screen by Billy Wilder, Samuel Taylor and Ernest Lehman. While eloquently telling the story there is a brilliant amount of dry humour – one liners woven into the script that I hadn’t noticed when watching the film a few years ago, it’s brilliantly funny without the actors making the humour loud or extravagant. A feat that, to me, shows how deeply Wilder trusted both his material and his actors to tell the story and allow the dialogue to land with its audiences. 

On the surface, I’m not sure it’s even possible to mix the likes of Billy Wilder, it’s cast and this script without creating a timeless classic. Everything about it is so watchable. I highly recommend ‘Sabrina’, especially if you would usually write off black and white films; this was the first film I ever saw that wasn’t in colour and it really changed my mind. I had a completely unfounded hesitancy to watch B+W films because I thought I would get bored – if anything, they have to do more to keep a modern audiences attention and in my experience, they do just that!

I would also just add that although this is certified ‘U’ – one of the early scenes is an attempted suicide and, although nothing shocking or graphic it’s worth bearing in mind if you are watching with younger children.