While audiences often express a desire for daring cinema, how do they react when such films arrive? Kogonada’s A Big Bold Beautiful Journey exemplifies this dilemma, positioning itself between an agreeable Hallmark-style romance—a description not meant pejoratively—and an outlandish surrealist endeavor. The film doesn’t fully commit to either, seemingly striving for an ambition it can’t quite achieve. Nevertheless, it possesses an undeniable sincerity. The narrative centers on two single individuals, both over forty, whose encounter appears either coincidental or fated. Sarah () and David () feel an immediate connection, yet rather than embracing a burgeoning romance, they meticulously scrutinize past life events, emotions, and encounters that have previously hindered their commitment. Essentially, they seek justifications to avoid initiating a relationship. Content in their established routines, they believe their age grants them a superior understanding, concluding that perfect romance belongs to the youth.
While this premise might suggest a conventional romantic drama, the film—penned by Seth Reiss, known for co-writing the 2022 culinary satire The Menu—introduces several eccentric plot twists executed with a poker face. The story commences with Farrell’s David embarking on a trip to an out-of-town wedding, conversing with his parents by phone. He prefers attending solo, yet his parents express a desire for him to eventually encounter that euphemistic “special someone.” His father’s slightly unhelpful counsel, “Life is better when you’re open,” (with Hamish Linklater later revealed as the sweet, understanding father) is dismissed by David, who is keen to depart. However, he discovers his street-parked car has been impounded. Conveniently, or perhaps by fate, he spots a hand-painted sign for “The Car Rental Agency,” operating from a vast, hangar-like space. It’s managed by two enigmatic, possibly extraterrestrial entities portrayed by Kevin Kline and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. They equip him with a 1994 Saturn. Despite David’s intention to use his phone for navigation, they persuade him to rent their proprietary GPS, which possesses mystical capabilities, guiding him to locations that provoke monologues reflecting on his past, adolescent aspirations and letdowns, and his perpetual difficulty in forming enduring relationships.
However, prior to these events, David encounters Robbie’s Sarah, another attendee at the wedding. Their flirtation is tentative, with Sarah explicitly stating her aversion to commitment. Early in the film, Sarah exhibits traits reminiscent of what critic Nathan Rabin terms a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl,” projecting an aura of being “bad for you, but irresistible nonetheless.”
Indeed, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey continuously triggers cautionary alarms. It frequently approaches the precipice of sentimentality, and frankly, the very inclusion of the word journey raises my immediate skepticism. Yet, despite my inclination to deride what unfolded onscreen, I found myself unable to. David and Sarah do not unite at the wedding—she departs and spends the night with another—but their trajectories converge later, seemingly by coincidence, at a Burger King. Sarah’s vehicle, also acquired from the quirky pair at The Car Rental Agency, breaks down, leading her to accept a ride from David. Subsequently, the mystical, magical GPS guides them to a series of inexplicable “doors to nowhere.” Traversing each door transports them to pivotal moments and locations that shaped their identities. Sarah revisits a museum she cherished with her deceased mother, reawakening guilt over not being present at her mother’s passing. David re-experiences the night he performed in his high school’s production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, a memory primarily defined by rejection from his teenage crush. These are the often trivial, sometimes profound, experiences we carry throughout life. By observing each other’s poignant recollections, David and Sarah gain significant, perhaps excessive, insight into one another.
The entire presentation of A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is characterized by awkwardness and peculiarity, yet I found it more charming than alienating. Kogonada stands out as a contemplative, insightful director. His prior narrative films, After Yang (2021) and Columbus (2017), delved into subtle, ethereal , of simply yearning to become. These are films that demand you to ; they fully reveal their impact only hours or days post-viewing. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, however, diverges. Kogonada aims for a stylized, dreamlike quality, presenting a narrative that leans more towards semi-reality than pure surrealism. Witnessing Farrell, among the most profound actors of our era, fully commit to a high school musical number in How to Succeed—complete with the archetypal drama club eyeliner—compels the viewer to embrace that raw, unpredictable instant. Meanwhile, Robbie, possessing serene and flawless beauty, portrays a character brimming with self-loathing. We often harbor a subconscious belief that beautiful individuals are exempt from hardship, but wisdom suggests otherwise. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey embarks on risks, not all of which yield success. Occasionally, it feels overtly self-aware. But what specific outcomes are we truly seeking from it? This film acts as an enigma, inviting us to embrace the essence of the present. It carries an inquisitive and melancholic resonance. And who, from time to time, doesn’t require liberation from the constraints of absolute certainty?
