In an age of algorithm-fed romantic comedies built on hyperactive pacing and fleeting trends, Kogonada’s A Big Bold Beautiful Journey feels like an act of rebellion. It takes two of Hollywood’s hottest stars, Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie, and places them in a meditative, magical-realist world that trusts its audience to find meaning in the silence between words. While its deliberate pace may test the patience of some, it’s a profoundly sincere and mature film for adults grappling with the ghosts of their past.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Review
The film introduces us to David (Farrell), a man defined by a listless, bone-deep melancholy, and Sarah (Robbie), a guarded woman whose quick-witted charm is a well-practiced defense mechanism against her own painful history. The two strangers each unknowingly rent a car from the same bizarre warehouse agency, run by a foul-mouthed, German-accented Phoebe Waller-Bridge (who knocks the house down with each delivery).
It’s only after their chance meeting at a wedding, an encounter charged with palpable chemistry, that the cars’ GPS systems mysteriously activate with a strange new directive, promising them a journey of the film’s title, a fantastical road trip that serves as a form of narrative therapy. The two are guided to replay and re-examine key moments from their pasts, forcing them to confront the choices that have left them jaded and adrift.
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This premise is where the film both finds its unique voice and risks losing its footing. The magical realism of their GPS-guided emotional adventure is a bizarre swing that occasionally feels at odds with the grounded, subtle performances. Kogonada intentionally withholds details about their present lives, asking us to understand David and Sarah solely through the regrets they revisit. While some of these vignettes feel emotionally potent, others land with the familiar thud of on-the-nose melodrama; Sarah’s unresolved anger toward her father, David’s lingering heartache over an old flame.
What anchors the journey is the chemistry between its leads. Farrell, deploying his natural Irish accent, is magnificent. His moroseness is a deep, lived-in weariness that feels achingly authentic, recalling the best moments of his work in The Banshees of Inisherin. Robbie, tasked with a more guarded character, feels less grounded. Her tacky American accent, particularly next to Farrell’s authentic voice, creates a subtle but persistent sense of miscasting, making Sarah harder to connect with, though this may be an intentional choice to reflect her character’s emotional walls.
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Kogonada frames his characters in meticulously composed shots that emphasize both their isolation and their potential for connection. Paired with a fantastic ambient score, the film is an undeniable audiovisual feast that communicates as much through its pristine images as it does through dialogue. It’s the quiet, patient style he honed in Columbus, again used to explore themes of passion, regret, and the search for meaning in a world that rarely slows down.
Is A Big Bold Beautiful Journey worth watching?
Ultimately, the film’s greatest strength is its radical earnestness. We live in a culture of extreme reactions, where films are often declared either transcendent masterpieces or irredeemable failures. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey rejects this binary. It’s a quiet, kind, and optimistic film that doesn’t scream for your attention but rather invites you to think. In a world so increasingly divided by a treacherous political state, this sort of kind, sincere filmmaking is necessary. It’s a work that will undoubtedly be labeled “dull” by some, but for those willing to meet it on its own meditative terms, it offers a beautiful and deeply moving experience.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is in theaters on September 19.
