Stereotyping Paradise

Every few years, a movie would come out that extols the need for people to relax, escape the dog race, and enjoy the moment. As unrealistic as the prospect of workers, living paycheck-to-paycheck, suddenly being freed from the daily grind might be, the idea of being somewhere else (really, anywhere else) is such a commonly dreamt dream that such escapist movies continue to be made. To ensure that the remotest prospects of freeing oneself from the capitalist system of labor have at least some sort of tantalizing feasibility, the escapist genre would add familiar storylines and twists to bring the exotic down to earth.

The recently released romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise seems to fit the escapist genre to the T. Set on the beautiful coastlines of Bali and Queensland, the movie is first and foremost a visual feast. As much as the characters in the movie said multiple times, the locales where the movie takes place are by definition, paradise on Earth, inhabited by seemingly the most carefree, happy, and relaxed people on the planet. For the wealthy protagonists (and audience of the movie) from the so-called developed world, the "natives" who do not seem to worry about money or social status are the targets of intense envy.

In this particular movie, that envy has translated into extreme escapism, in the form of the young female protagonist deciding to throw away her well-paying career in Chicago as a corporate lawyer by marrying a simple seaweed farmer in rural Bali. Bali is a popular international travel destination and has plenty of rural farmers on the island, so the storyline is almost set up with the explicit intent of asking the movie audience to imagine themselves in the shoes of the protagonist, turning their lives around for the better through an unexpected whirlwind romance.

Yet, like many other movies of the same genre, Ticket to Paradise quickly tires into stereotypes after coming up with a beautiful visual setup and a sufficiently believable background story. On one hand, in a bid to portray Bali as a paradise on Earth, it intentionally glosses over the complexity of local society and its relationship with its foreign residents. Locals are portrayed simply as completely welcoming to foreigners with no previous ties to the island, embracing them into the local culture of extended kinship and mutual support without a tinge of suspicion and reservation.

On the other hand, the movie also stereotypes the typical American nuclear family by introducing overbearing parents to the protagonist who are themselves seeking to reflect on their separate lives since an anger-filled divorce many years ago. The emotional vulnerabilities behind the facade of tough career-centered individuals with ample financial means are relatable perhaps to some in the audience, but only in the imagination of many more who have never had any privilege of a high-powered white-collar career. For non-American viewers of the movie, it only helps typecast American culture as many more Hollywood movies have done in the past.

Such stereotyping can be fatal in reducing the overall depth of the storyline. While every individual has fathers and mothers and perhaps has fought them over opinions and values, many also know that the general differences in ways of thinking are also affected by changing social mores and ideologies, forces that are far beyond the idiosyncrasies of any individual family. Understanding the thoughts and beliefs of individual characters is great, but without more background on how those came about outside their superficial personal choices about careers, marriage, and childbirth, the picture is simply not full.

Indeed, stereotyping, in the age of global news delivered in real-time through social media and a globetrotting grassroots-level community with members around the globe, only comes across as not respecting the broad perspectives and knowledge of the audience. In making escapism real, it is no longer enough to make the characters believable at the individual level, making the entire social context in tune with the real world is just as important. Without supplying content about the high-level sociocultural elements, the movie, however relatable, can just seem to be someone else's story.

Of course, in the limited runtime of the average movie, fluffing out the personal and macro-level at the same level of depth is much easier said than done. But in an age when the investment in average blockbuster movies continues to grow, and consumers, spoiled for choices, become ever more discerning, the best scripts and directors will have to do more than just tell the story of a few characters. Even for the often formulaic world of romantic comedies, movie-makers will need to be careful in avoiding stereotypes to really draw in the audience emotionally.