When considering my own viewing habits, I recognize that tracking things logically is a big part of how I take in a movie. Whether it’s a serious historical drama or an audacious cosmic adventure, there is great satisfaction in recognizing how the different pieces of a story fit together and how filmmakers open up new ideas with fresh perspectives and conflicts. My sensibilities are wide open for any and all kinds of wild swings… but I do generally ask that some kind of effort be made at rationality that at least functions internally.
That being said, a healthy dose of magical realism can provide a pleasant vacation from this personal tendency. The right tone has to be struck, like a specific key for a specific lock, but a proper mix of quirk and strange can obliterate my expectations for logic and take me away on a unique adventure. Kogonada’s A Big Bold Beautiful Journey isn’t a movie that I would say thoroughly and consistently hits that sweet spot, but it strikes it with enough regularity and charm to provide a sweet dose of escapist romance. It has enough funny and kooky to be entertaining while the star power and charisma of Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie do the heavy lifting to make the characters pop and their drama feel substantial.
Written by Seth Reiss, the film begins as David (Colin Farrell) heads off on a road trip to a friend’s wedding, but he is impeded right at the start of his trip when he discovers that his car has been clamped with a boot. Noticing a conveniently placed flyer for a business simply called The Car Rental Agency, he makes a reservation for a vehicle, and he is met with a series of oddities when he arrives to pick it up: the employees (Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Kevin Kline) are a peculiar pair who have set up shop in the middle of a sound stage, treat the interaction with David like an audition, and give him the keys to a 1990s Saturn sedan – insisting that he opt in for the GPS system.
At the wedding, David meets Sarah (Margot Robbie), a fellow guest with whom he shares a moment, but things don’t really spark… until the next day. On the road home, David is prompted by his GPS and asked if he wants to go on a “big, bold, beautiful journey,” to which he agrees. The directions that follow see him reunite with Sarah – who also just so happens to be driving a rented 1990s Saturn with a strange GPS system – and they go on a trip together visiting a series of doors that allow them to visit the moments from the past that have shaped them as people and the ways they view relationships.
Magical realism is used to wonderful effect in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is at its best when it’s committed to being unconventional and strange. Beyond the scene-stealing turns by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kevin Kline as the mysterious car rental agents, both David and Sarah understand that what they are experiencing isn’t normal (it’s not as though this is a sci-fi/fantasy world with recognized altered physics or advanced technology), and there is a delight in the way in which they simply choose to accept the magic and go where it takes them without substantial confusion or surprise. There is no heavy lifting with explanation or exposition; the audience is simply invited to embrace the wonder alongside the characters, and it’s successfully refreshing and engaging.
There are some gaps in the narrative that aren’t handled as well (like all of the time the protagonists spend in the car together driving from destination to destination), but the story is principally filled with both fun and dramatically complex trips through time that effectively challenge and expose David and Sarah – like the former re-experiencing heartbreak on the night of a high school performance of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying and both being forced to confront past romantic relationships that ended horribly because of their personal shortcomings.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a movie that needs a bit more pop in its drama.
The movie admirably tries to make these heightened circumstances co-exist with high emotional stakes for the characters, but it’s also where it falters. Both David and Sarah have realistic personal issues that hold them back from committing to relationships, and the journeys are designed to make them confront what is holding each of them back, but there is a soft playing of conflict that prevent the film from properly popping. Where A Big Bold Beautiful Journey should have major revelations that upend the way that we look at the protagonists and their potential future together, it instead keeps things on an even keel, and it stifles the cinematic experience.
The special talents and gravitas of Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie help to somewhat mitigate this, as the actors and their energy alone make the roles exciting to follow, but it doesn’t totally fill the gap.
Similarly, with the way in which the movie challenges the conventions of reality, one would expect that it would have greater visual flair to match, but the style is surprisingly subdued. Beautiful locations are found in nature for where the protagonists come upon the various doors that let them travel into their own pasts, and Kogonada takes moments to dazzle as David and Sarah walk through these portals – but beyond a sequence that sees the couple visit a museum and become a part of one of the works, there is a larger aesthetic simplicity to the movie and ultimately translates as a missed opportunity.
The premise and star power (not to mention the promise of the title) ultimately make it feel as though A Big Bold Beautiful Journey doesn’t fully live up to its potential, but I’d qualify it as a success of sensibilities. It doesn’t leave a powerful and lasting impression, but it’s a movie that is easy to give oneself over to for an entertaining, magic-infused trip.