A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Takes the Road More Traveled
“Doors are tricky.” These are words of caution given to David (Colin Farrell) by a car rental employee, and they will prove true throughout A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. Doors will confound David, enchant him, return him to places he never wanted to see again, and lead him somewhere entirely new.
After his car is booted, David notices a rather sketchy poster advertising “The Car Rental Agency” along with a phone number, a drawing of a heart, and not much else. It’s the kind of thing that can be what it says it is, but David’s trying to get out of the city for a wedding, so he takes the bait. If the poster seemed scammy, the actual agency appears like an elaborate prank or performance art, but they do, in fact, give him their very best vehicle to rent: a 1994 Saturn. With a GPS tossed in, for good measure. Sarah (Margot Robbie) is also at the wedding, and the two single people connect in spurts, but they both avoid creating any real spark. On their way home, though, their rental cars—Sarah also has a 1994 Saturn—lead them back together and prompt them to embark on the eponymous adventure.
The first stop is, well, merely somewhere along the side of the road. But as they wander into a nearby woods, they discover a door standing on its own, and they quickly realize this will be a journey throughout each of their lives. The doors they encounter will take them into high schools and hospitals, coffee shops and places of retreat. As David and Sarah are forced to witness and share these moments with each other, the film seems to be asking, if we saw the most emotional moments of any random person’s life, would we fall for them?
It’s a whimsical rom-com setup, but the sheer weirdness of the conceit keeps A Big Bold Journey more interesting—to a point. For the first half, the movie leans into such strangeness, such as allowing Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kevin Kline to dislodge both David and the audience as The Car Rental Agency’s employees (or maybe casting directors). This is an oddly shaped movie, and in the hands of lesser actors it would fall apart from the start, but Farrell and Robbie know how to make the most of the coy dialogue. The film does stumble in the latter half as the script wearies into predictability, particularly in the details. There are still some laughs with the direct script—“I fixed your exploded car”—but the story becomes tepid. We know where this journey is ultimately headed from the beginning, but it was the small moments that brought the surprise needed to keep it engaging; those small moments vanish, leaving us with the familiar waypoints of an inevitable reunion.
This is director Kogonada’s third feature, following the excellent Columbus and After Yang (also starring Farrell), and A Big Bold Beautiful Journey marks a big, bold departure. The former films were both quieter, contemplative affairs structured with techniques aligned a more to transcendental style than emotive Hollywood forms. A relentless soundtrack replaces the frequent silence of his earlier films, signalling an intentional swerve or experiment with this film. It’s not fully successful, but that’s largely due to the story, itself. Kogonada’s talent for quietly stunning images and effective staging is still on display, and he continues to demonstrate his architectural eye so deftly deployed in Columbus and After Yang. The colors and much of the imagery dazzles (with some clear references to Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg). One unassuming shot of cars in a parking lot after rain creates a spectrum of soapy pinks and blues that turns a mundane shot into an impressive, beautiful moment.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey takes an interesting day trip into the emotionality of acting as it occasionally emphasizes the performativity that Sarah and David are required to employ. As Waller-Bridge’s character exhorts, there are “some moments of honest-to-goodness truth in performance.” If the second half of the film decided to head down that road, it could have found a more intriguing destination. Beyond Cherbourg, there are humorous nods to Federico Fellini and 2001: A Space Odyssey. These signs all point to Kogonada’s grander influences and ambitions, but the film falls far short of those heights and the meticulously bizarre reaches of Gondry and Kaufman. The clearest comparison for A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is About Time, with both films charting a romantic itinerary through grief, memory, and loss.
Many admirers of Kogonada’s previous films will likely kick against this new direction, but there are enough aspects that signal a creative talent expanding his range. Fans of Robbie and Farrell can find enough enjoyment out of their performances, and even as the script becomes diluted, they continue to express emotional power. In fact, it was this film that cemented Farrell as the actor I believe is doing the best, most interesting work over the last five to ten years; no one can be so expressive and layered while working with such varied modes of dialogue (consider his work with Lanthimos, Kogonada, McDonagh, and McQueen). Their collective skill, however, isn’t enough to turn A Big Bold Beautiful Journey into a memorable trip. Despite some detours, we know our destination. To some it may live up to its big and bold promise, but it’s too clearly signposted.
