Reel Review: A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Poses Grand Ideas And Emotional Stakes But Lacks Cohesion
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey follows two single people, Sarah (Margot Robbie) and David (Colin Farrel), who meet at a wedding. After a short encounter the two decide to part ways until their car gps systems work to bring them together through a series of adventures. The two embark on a journey through their pasts, slowly opening up to one another, in hopes of creating a meaningful and honest relationship.
The first act is clunky to say the least. The set up for this journey lacks any logical sense and the dialogue is confusing, comical, and empty at times. The first time Sarah and David meet, it’s uncomfortable to watch. The odd outfit choices combined with the sporadic yet long bouts of dead air make it hard to invest in the story from the start. They don’t make it easy to buy into the story, but once you do, it is a beautiful ride.
The doors in this film act a device to allow these characters to show their past, flaws and all. While the metaphor here is quite silly, it does expose a certain vulnerability it takes to truly share yourself with someone in a relationship. The only way to really know someone is to share your best and worst moments with them, the ones that haunt or stick with you for your entire life. Falling in love, losing a parent, and breaking off an engagement are all huge milestones in anyone’s life and sharing those experiences are the fastest way to connect with someone.
Throughout this journey, the gps is constantly prompting the two to continue the journey, but the option to end it is always there. Being in a relationship is always a choice, but not always an easy one. Opening up and sharing your most vulnerable moments is the scariest thing you can do, and people cope with that in different ways. This film clears away all the mundanity of everyday life and takes a microscope to the ways in while people truly bond. It is a fantastical and out of this world way to examine the vulnerability it takes to develop a true and meaningful relationship with someone who was once a stranger.
There is so much in this film to connect to and resonate with. The heartbreak of unrequited love as a teen is all too universal and formative to how you view relationships. Having a parent leave and come back to having a parent die are both extremely affecting events in one’s life and again, can change the way you view love, for better or worse. While some of the execution can be cringe or illogical, the motifs of the film stand true.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is playing in theaters now.
