Movie Review: 'Pooling to Paradise'

Pooling to Paradise stars Lynn Chen as Jenny, an uptight Mommy Blogger who is late to getting to the airport for a weekend away from her family in Las Vegas. Jenny has used an app to get a ride share to the airport but she’s accidentally booked it as a carpool rather than a quick solo ride to LAX, much to her horror. Her driver, Marc (Jordan Carlos), with a C, he’s very specific about that, is a bit of a space cadet, seemingly oblivious and possibly a little buzzed.

Joining Jenny in her unwelcome car pool is Kara (Dreama Walker), an actress on her way to some workout boot camp. Kara appears to be a bubbly blonde but she also claims to have graduated from Duke University and studied science, Jenny is rudely dubious of these claims. Joining them is Sean (Jonathan Lipnicki). Sean is badly hung-over and smells like how he feels. Sean was recently drinking his way through a break up and has called for the ride share for a ride to a hotel.

I will leave you to discover what’s going on with Sean as his story drives the action of Pooling to Paradise which eventually becomes a road trip comedy. Sean wants to go see his ex, Dawn (Taryn Manning, in a cameo appearance), but she lives in Paradise, Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas. Vegas is where Jenny was headed for her mom’s weekend and with that, rather than missing her plane and having to make new arrangements, Jenny pays Marc to drive to Paradise to drop off Sean at his girlfriend’s house and take her to Las Vegas for her weekend. Kara decides to tag along as she has nothing better to do.

And that is what you need to know about Pooling to Paradise. The film isn’t about plot but rather about having these four unique personalities interact, find common ground and become friends. It’s a rather wholesome set up in many ways. Making friends at any age after the teenage years can be tough and Pooling to Paradise writer-director Roxie Shih finds a lot charm and humor in the awkward process of getting to know people, especially under a strange circumstance.

Pooling to Paradise may proceed from a gimmick premise of four strangers on an unplanned road trip that you might not find plausible but once you get past the questionable premise, these characters are interesting and their individual complexities are fun to watch unfold. It’s easy to see why each of these characters wants to open up and share their stories and why each character is eager to listen and offer something of themselves in return.

In some ways, a movie like Pooling to Paradise is actually harder to make than a big budget action movie. A big budget action flick can fall back on spectacle and shorthand characters via action scenes that reveal things about them they don't have to communicate through dialogue. Pooling to Paradise can’t hide behind CGI or major incidents. It mostly has to rely on dialogue and if that dialogue isn't compelling and if these characters aren’t interesting or likabl,e from the first moments to the last, the movie can be over very quickly with audiences checking out, checking their phones or walking out on the movie.

Jenny for instance, the ostensible lead, has to make you interested in the first moments of the movie and if her arc isn’t compelling enough the movie dies a slow death. Thankfully, Lynn Chen is interesting from the first moment and her arc of rediscovering her voice and trying to figure out who she is now, after marriage and children upended her life as an award winning journalist, turning her into a Mommy Blogger, is very interesting.

Of course, the most notable member of the cast is actor Jonathan Lipnicki, best known for his role as the toddler in Jerry Maguire. All grown up, Lipnicki has acted very little in recent years but has a very natural and appealing quality. His character starts off as mopey and haggard and as the movie goes along he doesn’t gain much in terms of energy but he has a solid arc, one of a broken hearted guy who, through this experience, starts to open up and become less of a creep. He ruined his own life with his actions and he has to wrestle with that and I enjoyed that arc.

Pooling for Paradise feels a tad contrived in terms of plot and early moments are stilted as the characters take time to evolve from caricature to people of dimension, but I really liked how it turned out. I liked these characters and where they were headed. I identified with each of them in different ways and the forced dynamic doesn’t take anything away from the bonds we watch develop among people who had no reason to know each other but now are linked in a compassionate and supportive friendship.

Pooling for Paradise is available on most streaming platforms as of August 3rd, 2021.