A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
review by Bobby Blakey
Colin Farrell is one of those actors that I will watch anything he does. In 2021 he teamed up with director Kogonada for the sci-fi film After Yang and now the two are reteaming for their latest film A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. The film co-stars Margot Robbie, Kevin Kline, Jodie Turner-Smith, Hamish Linklater and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Can this film bring the magic and love it promises, or will it be a journey not bold enough?
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey follows Sarah and David who are single strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on A Big Bold Beautiful Journey – a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live important moments from their respective pasts, illuminating how they got to where they are in the present…and possibly getting a chance to alter their futures.
I was obviously looking forward to this film due to being a fan of all things Farrell but still wasn’t completely sure what we were going to get with this story. It kicks things off in a very unexpected and interesting way before falling into the rom com style tropes that are only elevated by the unique direction these characters are taken.
Farrell and Robbie have great chemistry with them both being a little off and closely guarded. You can see they have both been or going through something and in turn makes them both hesitant to this journey, but also more intrigued on its possible outcome. I found it interesting for a while as you are trying to figure out where it is all going and why, but it’s slow pacing and often gets lost in itself making it harder to stick with.
It's not boring or bad at all, it just doesn’t offer a whole lot during some of
this time that will keep you invested especially when the two of them are split up for a bit on the journey. I get what they were going for and why which is important for each of them ultimately but loses that spark that makes it compelling. The lack of real explanation is usually something I prefer, but here it is left so awkwardly that you might get annoyed to the how and whys even though it still makes sense.
In the end I enjoyed the movie for what it was but think it could have been trimmed down to speed up the pacing and leaned more into the mystery of the characters behind the journey to elevate it to something special.
In addition to the film this release offers bonus content including featurettes and more. Join the trip with A Big Bold Beautiful Journey available now on digital, Blu-ray and DVD from Sony Home Entertainment.