A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a film about facing your past and where it has led you now. Instead, however, the boring journey leads the audience nowhere.
The concept of the movie is appealing to people who love unlikely romances and unexpected connections — those who have experienced heartbreak and yearn for something genuine. While the movie is visually stunning, it lacks the most important part: actually building that connection.
For a movie that has the word “bold” in its title, you’d think that the journey our protagonists embark on would reflect the same. While surreal absurdism is an acquired taste, the simplicity in how strange that element is should stand strong alone. In this case, it doesn’t.
The idea of two people going on a road trip and learning about each other through their past experiences seems like it would pull on your heartstrings. Unfortunately, the lack of depth in the dialogue and the lack of connection between the audience and characters are where this film is hurt the most.
Colin Farrell plays David. He meets Margot Robbie’s character, Sarah, at a mutual friend’s wedding. The movie becomes intriguing at 25 minutes in, when the characters bring up themes of marriage and life.
It’s a hint that both of them, due to their past experiences, are jaded about the idea of marriage and living a full life. This is the central theme of the movie, and from there it should set up the audience for a bold, beautiful journey, but instead leaves us expecting more.
Their journey together doesn’t start until they end up sitting across from each other at the same Burger King. Sarah’s car dies, and David offers to drive.
There are two pivotal moments for each Sarah and David that we learn are what made them so jaded. David confessed his love for a girl in school who didn’t reciprocate, and Sarah missed the final moments of her mother’s life.
The former is a pretty innocent tale as old as time, but it proves to us that moments in our formative years can have a lifelong impact. The latter deals with regret and guilt, and navigating life after loss.
While these are two very different and interesting past experiences, the focus on them takes away from the connection that is supposed to be between Sarah and David. There is a lot of telling of each other’s past, but not enough present moments for their connection to be believable.
Robbie and Farrell are both talented actors and their potential was wasted on a flat script that focused too much on obvious themes rather than real, in-depth character development that give meaning to those themes.
While the script was boring and anything but bold and beautiful, at least visually, the movie is stunning. It’s dreamlike in the sense that they are walking through literal doors to witness moments of their past.
It also has “beautifully strange” images, like when Sarah and David are sitting in outer space, looking down at Earth. Still, it’s not enough to save the movie and keep the audience engaged.
The journey is a metaphor of getting to know each other’s past and by the end realizing you shouldn’t hold onto such things. I only wish the movie had taken more risks and given us something to talk about after such a long journey.
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Samantha Barker
Samantha Barker is a writer and fangirl from New Jersey. When she's not rewatching Daredevil or listening to the Beatles, she's cosplaying and attending comic-cons with her friends. Sam also co-hosts a podcast called Fangirl Confessions and writes for her Substack, Samantha, etc. Connect with her on X: @0nyourleftsam and IG: @onyourleftsam.