Film Review: A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

Life-affirming stories seem to be all the rage at the moment. The Stephen King adaption of The Life of Chuck proved that you don’t need a film to have superheroes or death or tragedy to make it work. Love, nature, and just life in general is something that isn’t expressed enough in the cinematic landscape. This brings us to a story about two strangers who meet up and go on, as the title suggests, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.

It is a promising title for a film with two very charming lead actors. It is sadly a very misleading title in itself. Let’s dial back a little and look at the concept of the film. Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie play David and Sarah. They live in the same area but they bump into each other at a wedding. It turns out they both got a rental car from the same weird rental car place. The AI in the cars bring them together again post-wedding, as the AI voice asks them if they wish to go on a Big Bold Beautiful Journey. It starts off promising, even with a weird moment in the car rental place, but the story doesn’t really go anywhere.

Throughout the film, David and Sarah go through an assortment of doors that are in the middle of nowhere across the American countryside. As they go through these doors, they re-live moments of each of their pasts. Some of those moments were life-defining and other moments just attempt to show them how beautiful life is. The story is very directionless from here. We learn about the characters but they’re not written effectively enough to be drawn into their world. There's no substance and no real hook for you to be invested in these two plain characters. The script and direction lack any cohesion and that unfortunately brings you out of the film.

Robbie and Farrell are great actors and they do their best at delivering some pathos to their characters, but it doesn’t change just how thinly written they are. The film looks good at times, but it makes no sense. It aims to capture wonder but the wonder is brief and some of the moments, like looking down at the Earth, just feel like something out of a dream. A dream is the perfect way to describe the film in many ways. It’s disconnected from reality, has no form, has no grounded reality and fails to make any real sense. Even the characters do not question why they’re experiencing everything. The random doors, reliving their pasts, it just equates to something hollow and un-inspiring.

Kogonada is the filmmaker behind A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, and their filmography is limited but has a pattern of style and concepts with their previous films. Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kevin Kline also appear in the film with a few other supporting roles, and their accents, presence and roles just further provide questions that do not get answered. That is the most annoying thing about the film, nothing gets explained or expanded upon. Throughout the film Sarah tells David that she would hurt him emotionally and they shouldn’t date, and yet the ending contradicts everything the characters have experiences. It is frustrating to watch, but it is alright because by the time the credits roll you probably would have forgotten it all.

★☆☆☆☆

1/5

Final Verdict:

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey feels like a dream, and just like a dream it is almost completely forgotten by the time you wake up. The story is non-existent; the script is painful and the only thing holding the film together is the two very charismatic lead actors. Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell do their best with the material that they have been given but sadly it just doesn’t go anywhere. The film definitely looks decent as well, but the whimsical nature of it just gets ahead of itself as it tries to be more art than film. It is a big bold attempt, but one that falls over on itself by the end and you will be glad to see the end by the time the credits roll.

Thanks for reading today’s blog!

Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions