Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie star in a romantic fantasy that is anything but.
Director Kogonada began his career by making a series of video essays — some of which you can watch on his personal site — that looked deeply into the various ways influential filmmakers have distinguished their work. His latest film, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, is a personal meditation on the characters of two people who have been unsuccessful in love, rather than the romantic fantasy that its marketing may suggest.
Colin Farrell, who starred in the director’s sophomore feature, After Yang (2021), has an intuitive understanding into the director’s desire to underplay the expected high points of a romantic fantasy. As the lovelorn David, he is sad and listless, still grieving the end of his most recent relationship, which followed on the heels of other unsuccessful relationships.
One rainy night, he rents a car from a very unusual rental agency, oddly represented by a peppy Phoebe Waller-Bridge and a morose Kevin Kline. After a long trip, he arrives at a wedding he doesn’t really want to attend, but feels obligated to do so.
There, he meets Sarah (Margot Robbie), who has rented a car from the same unusual rental agency. Soon, they end up on the titular “big, bold, beautiful journey,” guided by a cheerful GPS (voiced by Jodie Turner-Smith, also reuniting with the director from After Yang).
The trip, as well as the film itself, feels like a curious misfire for much of its running time. Neither David nor Sarah are eager to jump back into a relationship, and their forced banter falls short of being genuinely witty or revelatory or insightful.
Yet there are snatches that feel ripe with potential, as when David and Sarah are directed to a magical door, which reminded me of Makoto Shinkai’s quite wonderful anime film Suzume (2023), as well as the director’s own video essay on the use of doors in films by Robert Bresson. Too often, though, the doors lead to places that serve only as bookmarks in the protagonists’ past relationships, without diving deeply into the whys and wherefores.
That is saved for Act III, when everything comes under greater scrutiny. That poses a challenge, in that both David and Sarah are characters who play things close to the vest, and are reluctant to give up secrets, until they are forced to do so, one suspects by the demands of a major Hollywood studio (Sony Pictures, in this case).
Even with those reservations in mind, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey feels like the kind of film that will improve with the passage of years. Perhaps director Kogonada will be able to realize his big-screen visions more fully in the future, and this film will make a greater impression; the potential is surely there, as well as a wealth of possibilities that are never explored.
And perhaps a director’s cut will reveal why David developed an Irish accent as an adult.
The film opens wide Friday, September 19, throughout Dallas/Fort Worth, only in movie theaters. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.
Dallas Film Now. 