Guess anyone can get carried away, having bagged the super-charismatic Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie to play romantic leads. So it is that Kogonada and screenwriter Seth Reiss promise ‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’. Well, the film is none of the above – even after dropping the commas between those adjectives to make the task seem less tedious.
Farrell’s David and Robbie’s Sarah meet at a quaint wedding in the middle of a downpour. They are immediately drawn to each other, and realise not long after that they live in the same town. There is a moment at the wedding when Sarah seems willing to take the next step, but David holds back, and later regrets it.
But, fate, or rather the GPS of the rental cars the two of them have hired to get to the wedding — – and maybe, maybe the rental car guys played by Waller-Bridge and Kline – have other plans. And hence, wedding over, David and Sarah set off on a “big, bold, beautiful journey”, as guided by the GPS (voice of Jodie Turner-Smith). Sarah’s car breaks down at just the right moment for her to ride with David.
The film involves the GPS leading them to a series of destinations where they find doors which are portals to moments in their past. Having given us nothing except that David and Sarah are single, and she is a “serial cheater” by her own admission, the film hopes to give the two a character through these flashbacks.
For two people in their 40s, the two sure spend a lot of time dwelling on parents, including those who are alive, and even a chaste kiss in a romantic setting that is as romantic as it can get – up on a hillock, seemingly among the stars and looking down at Earth – doesn’t get their blood rushing.
Korean-American director Kogonada, in fact, rolls out painting-like serene landscapes with unrealistic efficiency, with Sarah’s vibrant clothes being the cherry on the top.
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The problem is that the relationship between David and Sarah progresses at the same placid pace, sans highs or lows. Apart from parents, whom the two meet at different stages of their lives in the film’s multi-dimensional verse, past partners also turn up, apparently to help us understand why David and Sarah won’t yet do what we all know they will.
One wishes one could say it is an opportunity lost, to get Farrell and Robbie to inject some passion into their insipid, meandering characters. However, the fact is that while Farrell tries hard to dig deep and find something in David, and Robbie arrives at that more naturally, there is little by way of chemistry between them.
And then the film aims to tie it all up neatly with the curious logic that rather than “being happy”, one should “try and be content”. Not big, bold, beautiful, or even a romance, is it?
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey movie review: Colin Farrell, Margot Robbie, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Kevin Kline, Hamish Linklater
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey movie director: Kogonada
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey movie rating: 1.5 stars
