What happens when two fiercely independent souls, leading seemingly happy lives, have a chance meeting at a mutual friend’s wedding?
It is the beginning of an illuminating adventure, diverting them from their normal lives, that sets them on a course that may or may not change their very futures.
This is the bare-bones plot of the even more intricate and engagingly beautiful new film A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, directed by acclaimed Korean filmmaker Kogonada and written by The Menu (2022) screenwriter Seth Reiss.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey was an unexpected delight to watch.
Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie brilliantly star as David and Sarah, an unyielding couple trying to cope with their current lives.
As the film progresses, it slowly transforms into an intimate and heartwrenching two-person play atmosphere.
These two adults are forced to confront their pasts when they find themselves thrust upon this emotional roller coaster of a journey of discovery and self-worth.
Led by their wayward GPS, supplied by the employees of the quirky car rental company (superbly played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kevin Kline), the two travelers are sent on a journey of seemingly completely nonsensical situations.
They soon discover that they are meant to face their troubled pasts, contend with intense heartache, and begin the process of contemplating a future they had never before considered. One in which they have a deeper and more meaningful existence together, in whatever form that may take shape.
Visually stunning in its surreal simplicity, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey takes a very straightforward story and injects a sense of wonder and fantastical imagery, turning literal doors and doorways into their metaphorical and figurative meaning and back again. Every element of the film’s story takes on increasing significance as the story proceeds.
I knew absolutely nothing about this film. I knew Farrell and Robbie were in it and that it was possibly a romantic comedy.
Going in cold, I found that I was truly whisked away on David and Sarah’s exploration of the self and of each other.
I didn’t know what was going to happen next. I found out and learned as they did, and I reveled in that fact. I will admit that my jaded and cynical 21st-century ass was constantly waiting for “the other shoe to drop”. I was waiting for some horrible event or accident to materialize, and for the film to get real dark real quick.
Thank Christ, I was wrong because what I felt after leaving the theater was an overall sense of hope and joy, an incredibly rare thing right now in this current volatile political climate in our country.
I have to say I love Colin Farrell. His more recent projects, especially. He has really worked his way into my film-loving heart over the years. I definitely think that being a character actor suits Farrell more than a “leading man”. It allows him to bust out some amazing performances unhindered by the “gotta look pretty” stigma that came when he was a leading man. Here, he truly shines as David. There is one scene in particular that nearly ripped my heart out. His subtle facial expressions and his ability to convey a thousand distinct emotions with his eyes alone are so powerful.
Margot Robbie continues to prove that she is a force to be reckoned with and not an actor you can underestimate or prejudge. She has a vulnerability, as Sarah, that is disarmingly powerful. Her initial tough exterior and almost flippant attitude only mask a deeper pain, and the more she tries to hide it, the faster the walls around it crumble. Her entire performance is nuanced by her ability to use her charm to misdirect both David and the audience until she is no longer able.
Kogonada is now three for three in my book for brilliance in cinema.
Starting with the strikingly stunning Columbus (2017), and then the profoundly touching After Yang (2021), A Big Bold Beautiful Journey was exactly that for me, a big, bold, beautiful journey. One that I had willingly taken with not a single idea as to what I was in store for.
One that I would absolutely and wholeheartedly let Kogonada take me on again and again.
Where he leads, I will gladly follow.
* * * * * *
Produced by Bradley Thomas, Ryan Friedkin,
Youree Henley, Seth Reiss
Written by Seth Reiss
Directed by Kogonada
Starring Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell,
Kevin Kline, Phoebe Waller-Bridge
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