This week, a romantic fantasy movie with a truly epic title “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey”, and big and beautiful Hollywood stars Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie, started its release. In the review below, we analyze whether, among all these self-proclaimed epithets, the characterization “interesting” is appropriate in relation to the fantastic journey promised to the audience.
Pluses:
beautiful actors at the center of the story; some funny episodes, an interesting concept at the level of the idea;
Minuses:
an AI-generated story that is completely devoid of life and emotions; good actors have nothing to play; naivety and general cringe-worthiness of dialogues;
“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey”
Genre romantic fantasy
Director Cogonada
Starring Colin Farrell, Margot Robbie, Kevin Kline, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lily Rabe, Jodie Turner-Smith, Billy Magnussen, Sarah Gadon, Brandon Perea, Chloe East, Hamish Linklater
Premiere movie theaters
Year of release 2025
Website IMDb, official website
He — is a handsome man, usually featured in colorful shampoo or men’s deodorant commercials. She — is as beautiful as a pupa. Sarah is a girl who seems to have stepped off the cover of prestigious glossy magazines. David and Sarah met at a wedding of mutual friends. There was even a spark between them, but that meeting never resulted in anything.
But whether by coincidence or capricious fate (in the person of one tough lady with a rough German accent and naughty car navigators with suspicious offers), David and Sarah are brought together again. And after a hearty fast food meal (don’t ask), they plunge into a big bold beautiful journey that will change their lives forever.
Well, you understand perfectly well what kind of movie this is in the context of genre affiliation — the trailer is more eloquent than ever. Through the magic door, the main characters travel through the nooks and crannies of the significant events of their lives, reflect, and rethink something. And in the end, of course, they fall in love with each other. But the completely empty script and the pulled-from-the-finger problems voiced in the dialogues, as if written by teenagers and for teenagers, spoil the impression of a noble idea. As it turned out, there is practically nothing behind that door. Especially nothing fantastic.
Yes, visually it’s a pretty attractive adventure with great actors, but there’s nothing inside that appeal. There is no content.
The characters behave like children, and all these “we can’t be together” look like passions from a cheap melodrama. Because, just imagine, life is full of complications, and relationships are also not a simple matter. Wow! But despite this, adults somehow get together, are not afraid to take important steps, make mistakes, act against the odds, and so on, and there is nothing wrong with that. This is life.
Against the backdrop of a surprisingly lifeless story in which, in theory, life should be abounding, The Big Brave Beautiful Journey seems an endlessly boring movie. Neither comedic moments nor the temporary aesthetics of classic musicals (umbrellas and sudden downpours are included), nor a couple of excellent actors who need no introduction save it. Because they have essentially nothing to play. Or rather, nothing. Their characters are outlined in very broad strokes. Their relationships are unnatural, artificial. Their interaction is weak, and their excuses are ridiculous. Their love is not real. Ephemeral. Definitely pretend.
The film is directed by Korean-American filmmaker Kogonada, who has worked with Colin Farrell before, three and a half years ago with his sci-fi drama After Young, in which the Irish actor played the lead role. And five years before that, the director made his feature film debut with the drama Columbus (plus last year he directed two episodes of the failed “The Acolyte”).
And both of Cogonada’s predecessors received a much more favorable reception than the new project — at the time of writing, its critical rating composed a disappointing 37% of positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes based on 128 reviews. And this is an absolutely natural result.
In general, the entire film can be compared to monotonous navigator instructions — it is nothing, devoid of emotional content, which only pretends to be something bright and meaningful, therapeutic and ultimately emotional. Something that leaves a pleasant bittersweet aftertaste. It is a beautiful wrapper and nothing more. The drama, the dialogues, the relationships of the characters in it-everything seems to have been generated by an omnipotent, but still not omnipotent artificial intelligence.
“The Big Bold Beautiful Journey” is the most sterile movie ever made. A journey to nowhere that lies to the viewer even at the stage of the pretentious, promising title. Can we call it a great movie? Hardly. Is it brave? Not at all. Perhaps, thanks to the actors, it is beautiful, but beauty, as we can see, can save the world only in cinema. And not by saving this particular movie, which makes an impression no more powerful than a beautiful postcard with a couple of standard phrases on the back.
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