Ah yes, the late 1990s — back when whimsy was a form of currency, gorgeous people being weird meant instant cult-film-canon status (or even Oscar nominations), and you could make a movie about, say, two people going on a magical road trip involving random doors in fields and be part of the zeitgeist. The ability to travel back in time is a key part of A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, a romantic comedy that doesn’t earn the right to use either word in its description. But it’s also a bit of wish fulfillment on the part of the film itself, which very much wants to walk through a portal and end up in a multiplex next to vintage Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman joints. There are many reasons that 1999 is considered a banner year for American cinema. This attempt to revisit the type of fanciful, footloose and fancy-twee storytelling that helped characterize that cultural moment is a big swing, and an even bigger miss.
Which seems genuinely odd, given all this throwback has, at least superficially, in its favor. For starters, there’s Colin Farrell, currently deep into a third-act career renaissance that’s included some of the boldest work he’s ever done (The Banshees of Inershin, The Penguin — even, er, Sugar has its moments), and who’s beautifully aged into his seasoned-leading-man phase. His costar is Margot Robbie, still basking in her post-Barbie glow and easily one of the most reliable and daring A-list actors working today. The director, Kogonada, is a video essayist-turned-filmmaker with a deft touch and a to-die-for formalist eye; Columbus (2017) is the sort of debut that sells an aesthetic vision without sacrificing character, and his previous collaboration with Farrell, After Yang (2021), embeds idiosyncratic touches into an existential sci-fi tale that enhance rather than eclipse its emotional heft. (The title sequence alone is an all-timer.)
And it’s got a high-concept premise that might have been excavated from a screenwriter’s laptop circa the end of the 20th century. David (Farrell) is a handsome single guy who can belt out “One” from A Chorus Line on demand. Sarah (Robbie) is a stunning single woman who has a tendency to leave broken hearts in her wake. They both meet-cute at a friend’s wedding. They have both been burnt in romantic relationships before, and are wary of the mutual attraction they feel. They’re both lonely in their own unique, special way, like figures in an Edward Hopper painting who are blessed with funky personal stylists.
Editor’s picks
But thankfully, there’s a matchmaker, in the form of a mystical rental-car agency. David finds himself in need of new transportation to get to the ceremony. The owners — played Kevin Kline in recessive mode and Phoebe Waller-Bridge rocking a Sprockets-level German accent, because why not? — convince David to spring for the GPS, in case his phone suddenly goes kaput. The day after the wedding, this system (voiced by Jodi Turner-Smith) asks if he’d like to go on a big, bold, beautiful journey. Considering the movie’s title, David unsurprisingly says yes.
So the GPS tells him to “go eat a fast-food hamburger.” And who should also be housing a whopper with cheese at a nearby Burger King but Sarah. It turns out that she, too, has rented a car from this same place. Except hers won’t start. So David offers Sarah a ride back to the city, at which point the car-radio version of Tinder with the mellifluous lilt directs them to a mysterious red door in the middle of nowhere. They will walk through many of these over the course of their adventure. Some will lead them to a lighthouse that David once visited, or his old high school, bringing them back to the night his heart was broken after a production of How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying. Others will take them a museum with special meaning to Sarah, or the hospital where her mom died many years ago. It’s not the destination that matters, of course. It’s the journey, blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Trending Stories
Excuse the cynicism, but this is the sort of combination of touchy-feely button-pushing and self-conscious peculiarity that’s meant to seem significant and profound that will bring out your inner rom-com Grinch. Throw in the oddly poor execution, and you find yourself staring down a big ol’ mess. Again, given the talent involved, it’s surprising that nothing seems to rise above the dross, although Kogonada throws in enough visual bells and whistles to at least keep your eyes occupied — so much depends on a red door, glazed with soft natural light, beside the pleasantly gnarled oak trees.
Related Content
Yet none of it seems to gel. And long before Farrell and Robbie have healing heart-to-hearts with their distant or long-dead parents, all so they can find love in each other’s arms as Mitski’s cover of Pete Townshend’s “Let My Love Open the Door” plays on the soundtrack — because, like, the movie has love and doors, get it? — you may find yourself squirming in your seat, partially out of impatience and partially out of embarrassment, wishing that A Big Bold Beautiful Journey would finally just arrive at its final destination and be done with it.