A Big Bold Beautiful Journey won’t work for everyone, but hearts of a certain shape may treasure it.
Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie star as David and Sarah, single guests at a wedding who flirt for a bit but then go their separate ways—too weary, at this point in their lives, to embark on another romance that is sure to be doomed by their respective neuroses. However, the universe—at least as represented by the bespoke GPS systems they both have in their rental cars—feels differently, as the next morning the devices (spiritedly voiced by Jodie Turner-Smith) direct them to the same fast-food restaurant, then on the shared journey of the title. Led to doors in the middle of unexpected places, each of which leads to a point in David or Sarah’s past, they embark on a therapeutic-metaphysic first date.
As I said, your mileage—and personal GPS—may vary. With its handcrafted whimsy (the navigation system has a dial shaped like a film reel and a red light that’s reminiscent of HAL’s “eye” in 2001: A Space Odyssey), I found A Big Bold Beautiful Journey sweetly inventive. Director Kogonada, working from a screenplay by Seth Reiss, mines terrain that’s reminiscent of the work of Michel Gondry (though closer to Mood Indigo than Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, if that helps you set those GPS coordinates).
Fans of Kogonada’s work might hold A Big Bold Beautiful Journey to a different standard. The director’s previous features, Columbus and After Yang, were far weightier than this, yet it’s worth remembering that each also had its own sly streak of humor. That’s at the forefront here (and rhythmically established by Reiss’ script), not only in Farrell and Robbie’s exchanges (both are delightful) but also by comic side bits, such as Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s enthusiastically profane rental-car agent. Compositionally, the extreme care exhibited in Columbus is echoed in many shots, including a lovely one of David and Sarah standing on opposite ends of a portico at the wedding and slowly walking toward each other.
Similar conscientiousness can be found in Arjun Bhasin’s costume design. With each stop, David and Sarah’s clothing changes to match the scene’s thematic tone, as when she wears a gray outfit and he sports a black t-shirt for a traumatic trip to a hospital. Far cheerier is the moment, outside a Burger King, where Sarah’s red jumper and yellow umbrella (one of the movie’s many nods to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) echo the colors of the restaurant’s signage.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is, of course, a far cry from that Jacques Demy masterpiece. Instead, it’s closer to a few other possible influences: Danny Boyle’s A Life Less Ordinary, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love, Damien Chazelle’s La La Land. Those are all movies I like more than most, so I’m happy to include A Big Bold Beautiful Journey in their merry band.
(9/24/2025)
