Kogonada is a filmmaker I've grown to appreciate quite a bit. His feature debut Columbus is a quiet but tender delight of a film, and his follow up After Yang is about as beautiful as a film about artificial intelligence can be. I was extremely excited for his follow up, and upon hearing the premise and seeing the trailers for A Big Bold Beautiful Journey it became one of the films I was most looking forward to. Sadly the reviews came and were much less favourable than I had hoped, but thankfully I still enjoyed the film enough.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey follows Colin Farrell as David, a single man who often travels alone. At a friend's wedding he meets Sarah (Margot Robbie) who is in essentially the same position. As they leave it turns out they each rented cars from the same bizarre rental company, and their GPSs pair them up on a fantastical journey through a series of doors connected to each of their lives. Over the course of their journey the two connect, but each must confront their pasts to see if they can be the one for each other.
If there's one thing this has going for it, it's the absolute beauty of what's onscreen. Kogonada takes clear influence from Hayao Miyazaki and Jacques Demy and brings to life a world full of bright vibrant colours. All the fantastical elements are still rooted in the real world, but the way the colours pop make every moment feel a little bit otherworldly. Similarly, the music has a sweeping feel that makes you swoon along with the film's emotional moments. The ideas at the heart of the film are really beautiful, and they're brought to life with a beauty worthy of them, there's just something missing from it all that stops it from feeling really special.
To me the biggest thing holding the film back is the dialogue. For much of the first act Farrell and Robbie are pretty much completely lacking chemistry, but they show a connection later as the film goes on. The dialogue between the two in the first and some of the second act is simply lacking any spark, making the two feel like two opposing magnets rather than two characters being pulled together. Their conversations are awkward, but rather than that endearing awkwardness of two people who clearly like each other it's the kind of awkwardness of two people that just aren't meant to be paired up. They do find their footing later, but even then there are moments of dialogue that feel forced and don't fit the flow of their conversation. This isn't just an issue between the two of them either, Phoebe Waller Bridge and Kevin Kline play the people renting the car to David and I honestly couldn't stand most of the time they were on screen due to just how off everything they said felt.
On top of the dialogue issues, I don't think the script gives us enough of a chance to get to know the characters. If anything Sarah is painted in a pretty poor light for most of the film, with most of our nods to her character having to do with what makes her a bad partner. David is shown in a more endearing light but it just feels like we don't get to know him outside of the frame of his past attempts at love. Despite the lack of depth though, Farrell and Robbie have enough charm to make you care for both characters anyways.
While they seem at odds early on I did wind up buying their chemistry as the film went on, and the way they each question themselves within the context of them as a pairing was really interesting to me. I also found myself to be an absolute sucker for the emotions Kogonada is going for as the two revisit parts of their past. Despite the flaws in the script there's a clear love behind everything, and the film is riddled with moments that show that passion. One in particular sees Farrell on stage in a high school musical and the whole sequence is just a delight. The imagery of all the different doors sitting in the middle of fields and random places also just tickled a visual itch I didn't know I had. At the end of the day I'd definitely say I was a bit disappointed, just because of how much I wanted to love this, but I did wind up enjoying it despite its faults thanks to the beauty on display and love behind the camera. 3/5
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