COASTING ON CHARISMA

The trailers have been running in theaters for months: Julia Roberts and George Clooney bickering and scheming to keep their law school-bound daughter from making what they consider the mistake of her life. Lily, after just a few days in Bali, has fallen for a sexy seaweed farmer.

There’re all kinds of problems with that scenario. To begin with, Lily seems too driven and book-smart to throw her lifelong plans away after a few mai-tais, even though her prospective beau Gede has charm to spare and lives in what passes for paradise on earth (Australia sitting in for Bali).

Thankfully, Gede’s parents aren’t portrayed as native simpletons, but as kind, generous and loving people who trust their son to make his own way in life. That’s in stark contrast with Lily’s parents, David and Georgia, who travel halfway around the world to sabotage the impending wedding.

That’s because their own marriage faltered years ago, so even now they are consumed by cynicism and alleged contempt for each other. Clooney and Roberts shine in early scenes where the barbs hit with a poisonous precision. But all concerned here know you don’t pair two A-listers and expect them to live unhappily ever after.

As they team up to drive a wedge between Gede and Lily, their plan unravels.

Along the way, Roberts’s Georgia, the owner of a Los Angeles art gallery, begins to question why she should continue a relationship with a much younger airline pilot (Lucas Bravo, “Emily in Paris”) whose puppyish enthusiasm can be grating at times. He arranges the cockpit duty to Bali so he can press Georgia to make a commitment she might not be ready for.

And you can see from miles away where the story is headed. The two exes share the memories of what drew them together in the first place. And they realize trying to split up their daughter and her in-the-moment fiancé is too selfish even for people who have made selfishness a second career.

Roberts and Clooney have history, having made two Ocean’s movies together early on. So, their dynamic is believable and welcome and helps support an otherwise weak script.

If nothing else, the scenery is breath-taking and, more than once, I wanted to sink my toes in the white sand and drink whatever it is that gets the Balinese through their day.

“Ticket to Paradise” is a fun little romp with a genuine sweetness that has been missing from theaters for far too long. But let’s hope Roberts and Clooney make another movie that has more on its mind than beer pong and dancing dolphins.