A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
Robbie & Farrell Lack Chemistry in this Painful 2 Hours
Indie auteur filmmaker Kogonada gained fame with thoughtful movies like Columbus and After Yang. Now, with A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, he’s trying his hand at a blockbuster romantic comedy. Starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, with The Menu writer Seth Reiss scripting, what could possibly go wrong? Sadly, it seems, quite a lot.
The story promises depth, but it’s bogged down by clichés and over-explanations that undermine what could have been a meaningful film. Sarah (Robbie) and David (Farrell), both chronically single and afraid of commitment, rent cars from “The Car Rental Agency” following serendipitous circumstances. These are the only two cars available, equipped with a GPS upgrade (because you never know when your phone will crap out on you) that leads them on—you guessed it—a big, bold, beautiful journey. The mysterious, possibly magical car rental agency and its GPS send Sarah and David on a journey through magic doors into their respective pasts and closer to each other.
Despite being excellent actors on their own, Robbie and Farrell manage to have the least amount of chemistry possible, which makes it hard to root for their characters or their relationship. But it’s more likely a fault of the script than the actors. Sarah embodies the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype—complete with emotional baggage, fierce independence, and aversion to relationships—while David uses every cliché in the book to try to get closer to her.
The film tries to use these time-travel journeys to craft a love story lasting no more than 48 hours, but a particularly intense scene reveals that David, despite thinking he knows Sarah better than anyone, actually only knows the surface-level details that the audience is presented with. A smarter film might have explored how David truly paid attention to Sarah and understood her, but instead, Kogonada and Reiss opt for the easier route. This pattern recurs throughout the film. Whenever something seems clever and subtle, Kogonada makes sure we don’t miss it, resulting in an overall feeling of underwhelming, overly obvious storytelling.
One of the film’s most heartfelt moments occurs when Sarah finds herself back when she was 12 and her mom still alive. The two pretend Sarah is a grown-up so she can ask her mom the questions she’s always wondered about regarding adulthood. Robbie’s performance in this emotional scene is beautiful, and the audience can see pieces of Sarah healing before their eyes. It makes you wonder how powerful this film could have been as a character study of Sarah instead of force-fitting a love story that doesn’t suit the story.
Although well-intentioned, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey fails to connect with its audience. It dives into time jumping and teleportation without warning or explanation, leaving Sarah and David never questioning how any of this is possible. Kogonada asks the audience to suspend disbelief but offers no details about the world, leaving viewers confused and detached from the story. What could have been an intimate, creative exploration of grief, loneliness, and confronting your past to live in the present ends up being an uncomfortable two hours, with little emotional relief, heartfelt moments, or humor.
