A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

Over a wedding weekend, David (Colin Farrell) and Sarah (Margot Robbie) meet cute. He’s smoking a cigarette, and she’s taking a breather from dancing. They gather just outside the rain, and they both feel a spark. She warns him, though, not to pursue her; she’ll only end up hurting him. What if, he wonders, he’s the one who winds up hurting her? She assures him she won’t allow that to happen. And, so, they go their separate ways. David is driving his rental car back home when his GPS unit begins speaking to him. It asks him if he wants to go on a big, bold, beautiful journey (hey, that’s the name of the movie!). He agrees, so the first stop is to get a Whopper, where Sarah is, also eating a burger, because her rental car’s GPS asked her the very same question. That’s how you know Sarah is quirky and cool, because she looks like Margot Robbie and she eats Burger King, like, all the time.

Her car won’t start, so she goes with David, and they go on this big, bold, beautiful journey together. The GPS leads them to various doors that act as magical time portals to their past, which they journey through together, and they witness each other’s heartbreaks and tragedies through their lives. David relives the humiliation of his first love, when he was fifteen, a girl he loved (or at least thought he did), and she does not feel the same way. Even though he has the opportunity to do things differently, he can’t; he feels compelled to open the wound again because what if things are different this time?

Sarah takes a tour through her favorite place on earth: A museum that’s open after hours just for her and her mom. Her mom died when she was young, but they have this memory together, and it’s her happy place. As the two find and step through more and more doors, each memory is harder to relive, exposing their deeply human flaws–they aren’t just hurt people, they’ve hurt people, too. Even good people are guilty of awful things in their lives. The film explores relationships through this metaphor of traversing their psyches: When you let someone into your life, you open yourself to them, and you let them plumb the depths of your soul, in all the good and all the bad.

Kogonada also directed Columbus, another story about two broken souls who find each other. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is at its best when it’s sincere in its exploration of the traumas and the pains that shape us. The cutesy, magical plot device of portals into the past may have worked in another film, but here it feels like such a disposable item, specifically to set up the plot. There’s no sense of wonder to it, and there’s no amazement at the power of it. It’s shrugged off. It feels, in a way, like a more twee version of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but that movie believed in its concept.  A Big Bold Beautiful Journey would have worked better as a straight drama. The dynamic between David and Sarah, realizing that they’re simultaneously not as bad as they believe themselves to be, but also much worse in some ways, is the real meat and potatoes of the story. 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is not a bad movie, it’s just unsure of what it wants to be, and in trying to be one, and in trying to be the other, it falls short on either front. It either needed to be a grounded, realistic dramedy or a fanciful tale of magic and wonder, without the ironic eye-rolling. A little sincerity goes a long way, and when the sincerity is exposed, it’s terrific. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey takes a ride and finds itself on Blu-ray in a single-disc release, housed in a standard case. Inside the case is a code that can be used for digital redemption. The main feature menu is preceded by trailers and coming attractions.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is presented in 1080p high definition video. The candy-colored pastel palette is reminiscent of Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which itself is paying homage to the grandeur of the 1940s MGM musical. Like Umbrellas, Journey is brightly colored and lit, while the story itself is much darker around the edges, about loves lost and hearts broken and things that can and never will be. Cinematographer Benjamin Loeb, who also shot the film Mandy, is an expert at using strong, primary colors to great effect. Throughout, features are sharp, and contrast is excellent.

For its Blu-ray release, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey comes equipped with a 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround sound mix. Surround activity is surprisingly frequent, from the pitter-patter of falling rain, ambient effects like the chatter of a crowded auditorium, or through Joe Hisaishi’s excellent musical score. Someone’s voice will echo through the satellite speakers in an empty, spacious room. Though it’s not strictly a musical, its emulation of musicals extends beyond the visual presentation and into the audio mix, as there are a few musical moments and frequent needle drops on the soundtrack. The main attraction of the film is in the chemistry between Farrell and Robbie, so emphasis is on the dialogue, which remains leveled above the mix, always crystal clear and audible.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey has a few small, light, blandish special features to explore, offering an inside look at the film’s production for about 16 minutes.

• Love’s Ever-Shifting Landscape: A Relatable Journey (HD 6:15)
• The Magic Behind the Scenes: Crafting the Journey (HD 5:49)
• A Big Bog Beautiful Musical Number (HD 3:42) 
• Previews

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey feels like two separate movies competing for screentime, instead of coexisting and complimenting each other. It’s not a romantic comedy, magical musical, with some darker elements; it’s also a darker, more realistic drama, and the two movies don’t work together. The problem is that the magical, cutesy elements don’t feel sincere in their execution; they feel tinged with an ironic detachment, which only makes them feel like a distraction. Farrell and Robbie pair well together, and during the film’s more emotional moments, they get to resonate both independently and with each other. And while the story suffers from a split personality, it looks and sounds great. For diehard rom-com fans, you’ll probably find a lot to admire, so A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is Worth a Look.