Even less character development is afforded to her Balinese in-laws, warm (but mostly silent) presences, and her fiancé, eventually reduced to the Macguffin that must bring David and Georgia together by the end. With its Caucasian-dominated cast and fixation on sprawling island vistas, the film slots neatly into the Venn diagram between director Ol Parker’s Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again (2018), an escapist fantasy about rich White people on holiday in a foreign country, and Roberts’ Eat Pray Love (2010), an escapist fantasy about a rich White person on holiday in a foreign country. Glimpses into a new culture and way of life add texture to the film, but are kept to the bare minimum.
Still, it’s refreshing to find a rom-com that’s centered on an older couple, one that doesn’t make a big deal of their age. This is by design — while David and Georgia briefly flit with the hollow disappointment of what has already happened and the aching potential of what could have been, the film pushes them to focus on the joys of the here and now. It’s a seductive line of thinking, especially when set against the lush Bali coast where all the locals are endlessly kind and welcoming, where work is described as a partnership between man and nature, where life is framed as an aspirational fantasy without the threat of reality ever encroaching. Which is why it’s so easy to succumb to the allure of the film, its feel-good charm. It works, if only in the here and now.