TWO TICKETS TO GREECE - Mark Reviews Movies

Two Tickets to Greece, Greenwich Entertainment

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 13, 2023

Very little surprises in Two Tickets to Greece, which follows a pair of once-close friends on a vacation to the eponymous country. Once the pieces of writer/director Marc Fitoussi's screenplay are in place, it's almost impossible not to figure out exactly where this story is heading.

Generally, that's not necessarily an issue, as long as there's something beyond or alongside the formulaic plotting to keep us invested. In theory, Fitoussi is counting on his main characters and their relationship to carry this material, but apart from the fully invested performances by the two leads, there's not much that's surprising or insightful about that part of the story, either.

These two make up a classically mismatched couple, and that's about where the depth of the bond ends. Blandine (Olivia Côte) is a straitlaced, unadventurous woman, divorced for two years, still bitter and insecure about her ex-husband leaving her for a younger woman, and on the verge of living alone after her 20-year-old son Benjamin (Alexandre Desrousseaux) moves out of the house.

Magalie (Laure Calamy), on the other hand, is all about having fun, whether that be crashing parties or having casual flings, and living moment-to-moment without a steady job to support her endeavors. It was like this when the two were teenagers, before some teenage boy came between them and Magalie left following her parents' divorce.

On a whim, Benjamin decides to reconnect his mother with her former best friend 30 years later. When the son has to cancel plans for a trip to Greece with his mother, he invites Magalie—whose calls Blandine has been ignoring since their reunion, because she's "too much"—to take his place on the vacation.

The main gimmick here is that Blandine's dream trip to a luxurious resort on a certain Greek island is constantly upended by circumstances and Magalie's aloof, free-spirited attitude about things, such as paying the full fare for a ferry to the location. Of course, Magalie thrives, finding new friends and opportunities for entertainment, even on a semi-desert island, and obviously, Blandine, whose name feels like the whole joke of her character, is annoyed, miserable, and unwilling to try anything new.

Côte and an effervescent Calamy elevate the formulaic material a bit, if only because the two bring some underlying honesty to their archetypical characters. It also should go without saying that the on-location shooting for the movie means there are beautiful sights to behold in the background. Kristin Scott Thomas appears later, as another of Magalie's friends, and sets in motion a tonal shift that feels as if it's arriving about an act too late in the narrative.

Some key information about Magalie, for example, isn't revealed until just before the end, making it feel like a manipulative justification for a character who doesn't need it. Two Tickets to Greece is a slight comedy with middling standards that it doesn't quite attain.

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