A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, 2025.
Directed by Kogonada.
Starring Colin Farrell, Margot Robbie, Kevin Kline, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lily Rabe, Jodie Turner-Smith, Billy Magnussen, Lucy Thomas, Sarah Gadon, Brandon Perea, Hamish Linklater, Yuvi Hecht, Calahan Skogman, Chloe East, Jacqueline Novak, Jennifer Grant, Shelby Simmons, Simon Khan, Jason Kravits, Danielle Kennedy and Michelle Mao.
SYNOPSIS:
Two strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding have the chance to relive important moments from their pasts, illuminating the path that led them to the present and gaining the opportunity to change their futures.
Having a unique way into a familiar romance, exploring past and regrets, and whether the central pair of would-be lovers that the universe is trying to will into a relationship is not the same as sustaining that uniqueness throughout an entire film. Director Kogonada’s A Big Bold Beautiful Journey has a slightly futuristic yet grounded starting point in that a mysterious rental car agency dealership (which is presented as a nearly empty warehouse, as if it were intended for acting auditions complete with a talent assessment crew grouped behind one table) loans vehicles that come with sentient GPS devices urging drivers to break out of the confines of their miserable, broken, and defeated existence to go on a titular big, bold, and beautiful journey.
One of those individuals is Colin Farrell’s David, who is having a bad day with car troubles on a stormy day, forcing him to check out the rental establishment. Intriguingly, he also began having fateful encounters with Margot Robbie’s Sarah, first meeting her at a wedding where she proposes marriage in an intentionally unclear tone. She also warns that, if they were to get together, she would somehow hurt him. Considering that David is a man who thrives on the pursuit of love, this is already a questionable combination, yet the GPS robot (soothing and seemingly trustworthy, even when demanding, voiced by Jodie Turner-Smith) keeps stringing them along on the same path, including a roadside diner where they have fast-food cheeseburger meals and decide to go on the journey together.
That’s when the journey becomes serious and confrontational, exploring each of their paths and bringing them to magical realism doors that lead back in time to defining moments in their lives. The majority of these events come with unprocessed pain and hurt, directly correlated to their unhealthy relationship habits in the present. As said, it’s not necessarily a novel idea, and the clever way in isn’t enough to salvage that. The doors leading to distressing times, such as parental loss, high school heartbreak, and the erosion of falsely happy relationships. It’s the usual beats one would expect a film with this story to hit, this time with the clumsily handled angle that we are all actors in our own lives, and we perform in search of emotional truths.
While it’s admired that Kogonada (working from a screenplay by Seth Reiss) isn’t interested in drilling in the schmaltz with a jackhammer, opting for an acceptably nuanced approach that often allows these characters and their problems to feel real, it’s also a meandering slog that grows tiring while waiting out the inevitable conclusion as the circumstances grow increasingly cloying, predictable, and offputting.. The writing isn’t as strong as the performances or Kogonada’s direction, which is pleasantly bright and vividly colorful, lending a simple beauty to his lo-fi ideas.
Even though the filmmaker is actively trying not to do so, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is more of a big, sappy pile of mush. It’s certainly not big or bold, although there are some striking images, so the beautiful part is accurate. The setup and emotional climax are moving, but save for one gorgeous sequence at night overlooking the earth, the journey lacks a spark that Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie come up short in providing, primarily because this material lets them down.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
