Aaron Ploof
I’m a big softie at heart. Couple that with the fact that I love Romantic philosophy and magical realism, and the movie A Big Bold Beautiful Journey should be just the film for me. Its characters live in a world where the unexplainable happens, and they are barely phased. Their penchant for blocking themselves off from relationships is explored, and they learn to inch ever so closer to accepting influence and help from each other. This should be a movie I love. Instead, its overreliance on sugary sweet dialogue and its insistence on not showcasing the pain it seems so ready to explore inhibits it from reaching its full potential.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey stars Colin Farrell as David and Margot Robbie as Sarah, two individuals who both have a history of screwing up past relationships. David is in love with the thrill of the chase but grows bored easily. Sarah has a tendency to cheat on her partners, in fear that if she actually commits to the relationship, she will get hurt somehow.
Meet Cute
But I may be getting ahead of myself. How these two characters meet is perhaps the most interesting thing about the movie. David walks out of his apartment building one day to see that his car has a boot on it. Looking around, he spots a poster for a car rental agency, with a broken heart symbol featured on it. Sorely in need of a car to get to a wedding, he makes his way to the agency. The door to the building is locked, but a voice on the speaker next to the entrance tells him he must open it at just the right time. “Doors are a tricky thing,” she tells him.
He eventually opens the door to find himself in a gigantic room, with a small table on the far end. Two individuals (Phoebe Waller-Bridge & Kevin Kline) are seated there, and they invite David to approach. Mysteriously, they have his headshot on the table, even though he doesn’t remember taking that specific photo. After a bewildering conversation in which they insist he take the car’s GPS, they assign him a vehicle, and he goes on his way.
At the wedding, David meets Sarah. They seem to have an interest in each other, but they both are playing it rather cool. They end the night after speaking to each other a few times, and they both find themselves back on the road. However, the cars they arrived in have other plans, and they guide them towards a Burger King. The two eventually join forces on A Big Bold Beautiful Journey into their pasts, which might grant them a second chance at life and open doors towards a more positive future.
Doors Are a Tricky Thing
Speaking of doors, remember how Bridge’s character said, “Doors are a tricky thing”? Well, that was just the beginning of continually stating the obvious point. It’s great to have one or two moments in a movie where a character says a line or a moment is added that directly addresses the theme of the film, but an overabundance of these makes the film seem cheesy. This movie loves relying on statements such as these, and it comes off hokey and saccharine sweet.
As do the dialogue sequences, which don’t in any way resemble how actual people would talk. However, this might not bother people if they are used to movies with heightened realities such as this one. This isn’t really a death knell for the film. No. Rather, what brings the movie down is the film’s refusal to genuinely portray emotional pain in a way that truly impacts viewers.
A Journey to the Past
The doors David and Sarah walk through as they embark on their journey provide them opportunities to relive moments from their past that will clarify their decisions in the present. They don’t so much alter events as they experience them again, and this helps them confront their insecurities.
These flaws in their characters have caused them much pain both in the past and the present. There are several sequences in which these characters discuss their imperfections with each other. The dialogue gets at the root of their feelings and develops their characters, but it’s just dialogue. The movie doesn’t have the dramatic heft to help us feel David and Sarah’s pain. This writing robs us of connecting with our two protagonists, leaving us in a disconcerting emotional state that should, technically, be fulfilling but actually feels relatively empty. At least Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie give strong performances as the two leads. If only the material had matched their strength.
The Point
At the heart of A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’s themes is the message that risking it all to connect with others and being willing to live life in a consistent state of openness is central to the narrative. You’d have a hard time not coming away with the messages the film wants you to gather. The movie ends on a note you can see coming from quite a bit away, but this isn’t the kind of movie you go to for unpredictability. It is, rather, comfort food at its core. I do wish it could have given me some surprises. However, it did leave a smile on my face.
The film’s use of magical realism to portray these characters as embracing a more open way of living is enjoyable; however, it fails to deliver an emotional impact, losing itself in its message. For that, I will leave A Big Bold Beautiful Journey with a review score of
