It takes a small miracle to make Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell unappealing, just as it takes a special kind of confidence to put three adjectives in your movie title only to deliver on almost none of them. In related news, “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” director Kogonada is both undeservedly confident and one miracle away from sainthood.
“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” plays it fast and loose with its fantastical elements, allowing the main characters to slip through time and space without worrying about the metaphysics of it all. Instead of elaborate worldbuilding, the film relies heavily on atmosphere, artistic shots, technicolor scenery and just a touch of magical realism to elevate what is ultimately a straightforward story. Sadly, the film falls short on every non-aesthetic metric, with flashes of genuine insight overshadowed by flat characters, tonal inconsistency and distinctly lackluster themes.
At the center of the story are David (Farrell) and Sarah (Robbie), two strangers who have, for the most part, given up on romance. By the time they’re introduced to each other at a wedding, they’ve both had plenty of practice pretending to be happily single. After a stilted conversation that ends in disappointment for both parties, the two figure they’ve missed their chance for genuine connection, but it turns out the universe — and a mysterious car rental agency — has other ideas.
When the GPS devices recommended by the rental agency’s cryptic employees (Kevin Kline and a delightful Phoebe Waller-Bridge) start giving oddly specific directions, David and Sarah are sucked into the road trip of a lifetime with each other, where they must face their past mistakes head-on and break the toxic cycles they’ve trapped themselves in.
It’s an ambitious concept, especially considering the limited information we get about the two leads. Watching the film is a little like going on the world’s least advisable first date — we don’t learn the characters’ hobbies, careers or even their last names, but we do get a sizable heaping of their childhood trauma, romantic hangups and glaring red flags.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with skipping the small talk, but the lack of other defining details leaves the characters feeling more allegorical than individual, and the script doesn’t do them any favors. Even Farrell and Robbie’s formidable acting chops aren’t enough to salvage stilted dialogue that feels like it would have gone viral on Tumblr in 2014 — an exchange about whether the view from space is “beautiful,” “strange,” “beautifully strange” or “strangely beautiful” is particularly mind-numbing.
Another major issue is that despite being billed as a romance, the central love story feels underbaked. Even though they’re played by two otherwise charming actors, the chemistry between Sarah and David is close to nonexistent. I wish I were exaggerating when I say there’s more passion in a scene that doubles as blatant product placement for Burger King than in the pair’s first kiss.
The most impactful scenes occur when the leads aren’t even in the same room, since the two must split up to confront the root of their guilt and shame. These moments are genuinely emotional and well-executed, and if I were feeling more charitable, I might even praise the subversive decision to have romance take a backseat to self-discovery. Unfortunately, the self-discovery is distinctly less satisfying when it happens to characters I have no good reason to care about.
To be sure, there are bright spots here and there — a quirky musical number, some creative set pieces, the odd bit of wry humor — but they’re few and far between. The final product is a movie that takes itself too seriously to be funny, isn’t stylish enough to pass as avant-garde and has nowhere near enough passion to be a love story. I’m a sucker for a wacky premise, but at some point I start to wonder if what I’m suspending my disbelief for is even worth it.