A Big, Bold, Beautiful Journey
When David (Colin Farrell) finds a boot on his car as he's about to drive to a wedding, he also spots a handmade sign conveniently placed beside it advertising something called The Car Rental Agency. After a very strange experience procuring a 1994 Saturn SL and meeting the intriguing but elusive Sarah (Margot Robbie) at the wedding, David's rental GPS will ask him if he wants to take "A Big, Bold, Beautiful Journey."
Laura's Review: C-
Director Kogonada's ("Columbus," "After Yang") wrote his own first two feature films, both sensitively dealing with grief, but screenwriter Seth Reiss ("The Menu") has written his third film and while it shares similar themes, it is also a disjointed romantic comedy which isn't sure what it's trying to say. Farrell's costar, Margot Robbie, fares a bit better than he with her character arc, but the film's best performance comes from Phoebe Waller-Bridge in a small but pivotal role as an enthusiastic, Germanic car rental clerk.
Those first two films featured natural visuals, "After Yang" beginning to embrace technology as a means to store memories, but this film feels artificial from the get-go, David's introduction leaving a New York City brownstone obviously set on a backlot. At the cavernous warehouse that is The Car Rental Agency, he's greeted by a mechanic (Kevin Kline) and clerk (Waller-Bridge) seated at a long table, the clerk interrogating him in clipped Teutonic tones. When he wonders why she has an 8x10 head shot of him, a picture he does not remember having taken, a spotlight suddenly pinpoints him, the clerk telling him that performance often reveals the truth in the first bit of overt theatricality which gradually overwhelms the film. She is also rather insistent that he rent her GPS as his phone may 'crap out.' When we see him pull up to the wedding venue in the pouring rain, he'll be followed by a beautiful woman in a similar vehicle (rain and umbrellas feature prominently for unknown reasons).
Sarah catches David's eye from across the aisle at the ceremony and the two meet up at the reception to trade the type of quips heard only in movie banter. After telling him she has no intentions of marrying and is afraid she'll hurt him, she proposes, then goes off to dance with another. Later we'll have a side view of their adjoining rooms, David cursing his refusal to dance, Sarah sitting on her bed looking up at her dance partner.
After accepting his GPS's titular offer upon his departure, it will be no big surprise that he'll run into Sarah when he is directed to stop for a fast food burger and when her rental vehicle will not start they head out on that journey together. They'll be instructed to take certain exits which lead them to standalone doors which magically allow them to enter memories, the first a 19th century lighthouse David used to visit, the second an art museum Sarah's mother loved. As the two continue on, David reliving his high school production of 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying' and the rejection of the girl he loved, they'll contend with parental issues, Sarah distraught that her mother (Lily Rabe, TV's 'American Horror Story') died alone, David learning why his dad (Hamish Linklater, "Nickel Boys") always told him he was special. They will be a 'rest' atop a mountain overlooking earth where a kiss is shared, a car crash and a mutual visit to a NYC coffee shop where each will encounter a dumped significant other (Sarah Gadon of "A Dangerous Method" and "Cosmopolis" and "Lilo & Stitch's" Billy Magnussen) at a table for four, but although David will tell Sarah he loves her, she is no longer convinced. We've spent over an hour watching these two circling each other only for them to both fervently wish to go home. David drops Sarah off at her car which is suddenly working again, only for the two to both arrive at 'homes,' twee miniatures on the outside, their childhood abodes on the inside. Sarah relives an evening with mom (everyone sees these two as their childhood selves while we see Robbie and Farrell) and David inexplicably takes the place of his own father with his fifteen year-old self (Yuvi Hecht).
Kogonada and Reiss appear to be trying to illustrate how revealing oneself warts and all leads to a truer, deeper love, but while it has its occasional moments, particularly between Robbie and Rabe, this sentimental journey is far too scattershot to lead anywhere. In the press notes, Kogonada expresses a desire to refrain from using CGI, but the device he used, LED panels displaying virtual environments, aren't very convincing, the two costars frequently seen in something resembling blank rehearsal space. The production design (Katie Byron, "Don't Worry Darling") is like "What Dreams May Come" mashed together with Lars von Triers' "Dogville."
Margot Robbie presents with outer, flirtatious confidence later to reveal unbearable guilt, her low self-esteem having caused her to sabotage one relationship after another. Her scenes with Rabe are moving. Farrell, on the other hand, is rather one note here, his brief foray into song and dance a high, his exchange with Linklater sincere. Ironically, both actors fare better working with their characters' parents than each other. Waller-Bridge goes out on a limb with her bizarre interpretation and it works, goosing the film while she's present, while Kline is utterly wasted.
This 'big, bold, beautiful' journey took a serious wrong turn.
Sony Pictures releases "A Big, Bold, Beautiful Journey" in theaters on 9/19/25.
