A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is the latest outing from Kogonada, who directed 2021’s After Yang, which also starred Colin Farrell. This time, Farrell links up with Margot Robbie to go on a journey (a big, bold, beautiful one) of self-discovery and nostalgia. That’s the recipe for a real tearjerker, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, it misses the mark a little bit.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Review
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey has a lot of things going for it. The colors are truly stunning, making for a visual feast that is really a delight to take in. The colors live up to the billing, making every scene a really nice image. The performances aren’t really that outstanding or exceptional, but both Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell are putting in good work.
It’s never uninteresting, either. This odyssey you and the two characters go on is consistently engaging, hopping from moment to moment from our two extremely flawed characters’ pasts. Some of those moments don’t land the way they were intended to, but there’s at least always the promise of another chance.
The score is very solid, as are the needle drops. They don’t feel out of place or jarring, meshing well with the scenes and providing a nice narrative bump. And ultimately, the journey of self-discovery two painfully flawed protagonists is relatable and valuable. Where they end up, which is a better place than where they began, is a nice message to send and it’s done pretty well.
It Lacks the Emotional Depth it Needs
Unfortunately, though, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is never quite as deep as it thinks it is, nor is it as deep as it could and should be. It never goes quite far enough into these traumatic moments, only ever skimming the surface for the most part. More depth and a stronger emotional core would’ve really amplified the film.
There are so many opportunities to really make the audience relate and feel the pain the characters went through. Most everything they experience is pretty relatable. We’ve all been rejected by someone we went out on a limb to express our feelings for. We’ve all lost someone close to us, sometimes a parent. Those are very relatable experiences, but the shallow nature with which they’re too often portrayed sells everything short.
I really dislike letting my own preconceived notions and expectations impact my experience with a movie. I prefer to judge a movie on what it is rather than what I thought it would be. But I fear it’s unavoidable this time. The trailers indicated that this was going to be far more emotional than it ended up being, promising an emotional gut punch that I really needed but never got.
There are a couple of moments where it comes close, lightly tugging on those heartstrings. Colin Farrell’s David gets to relive his star performance in the play, which is also a night that his hopes of a relationship with his co-star come crashing down. It’s played well by Farrell and everyone involved, but it just lacks the gravity that it needed.
It also happens quite early in the film, which is to its disadvantage. That’s one of the most emotional moments, seeming to imply that the further in these two go, the more emotionally messy it’s going to get, but it never reaches even that high again. There are also moments when the metaphor bleeds into reality, but that can leave you confused about what is or is not actually happening. Some of those instances are great scenes, but they don’t flow quite so well with the overarching movie.
Conclusion
There was a real, earnest attempt at making something heartfelt here. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey does have big, bold, beautiful moments. It has (I’ll spare you those adjectives again) several really good ideas and themes presented, none of which are ever explored quite enough. But at the same time, those ideas and the few moments of brilliance are enough to at least make it watchable, if not enjoyable.
Score: 3/5
