A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Review: Kogonada's Romance Is a Life-Affirming Wonder

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"Are you ready to take a big, bold, beautiful journey?" The central premise of director Kogonada's latest feature is one that can go all manner of ways, and the movie certainly does. At times it's a drama, at others it's a story of grief, about finding oneself, about change. It's also a love story about learning to be open, to appreciate others, to find compromise.

Like Kogonada's previous features, particularly his 2017 feature Columbus, it's the tale of two wayward spirits who find each other and have to remove their own baggage (or bullshit, if you will) to find love. At the end of the journey, what the audience has experienced is a wondrous dive into humanity's capacity for love that is truly life-affirming. I felt this was a movie made specifically for me, and I have a feeling others will think that as well.

David and Sarah (Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie) meet while being the requisite two single people at a wedding. They both rent cars from a kooky car rental agency where the GPS asks them if they'd like to take a "big, bold, beautiful journey?" The two respond in the affirmative and are tasked with teaming up. What results is a 24-hour drive back home where every stop leads them to a door. Behind every door leads them to a moment in time they're forced to confront, act out, and learn from on their way to changing their lives and, hopefully, finding their newfound love for each other.

Kogonada and screenwriter Seth Reiss clearly find themselves inspired by classic romance films and musicals where emotions burn bright, love can bloom over a brief period of time, and there's always time for a musical number. Even the posters for the film evoke comparisons to Jacques Demy's 1964 romantic musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. "Life is better when you're open," David says and that's something the audience should be cognizant of. Reiss and Kogonada are making a classic era movie and thus questions like "Who brings the doors" and "Is this reality or not" are irrelevant. The journey is, quite literally, the destination.

Farrell has been showing his chops as an actor for several years and his capacity to surprise is still astounding. As David, Farrell plays the character closed off. He can have a conversation with Sarah, but when she presses him too hard--whether that be to dance or boldly asking if he'll marry her--there's a slight twinge in his face. He's uncomfortable. He's not in control. He's dismissed her. As the pair are brought together, particularly during a moment where he's forced to confront an old fiancee, you see David's realization that he has been outright cruel in the past. That's not who he wants to be, he just is. And yet, when David is charming, he's downright perfect. Did I have "Colin Farrell singing a selection from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying?" on my 2025 bingo card? Nope, but it is the moment that demands Farrell make a proper musical.

Compared to Sarah, David appears to have a charmed life. Perpetually told he's special by his parents--played by Hamish Linkletter and Jennifer Grant (another Old Hollywood connection--David believes it's made him presume he's perfect. And yet, in going through his past, he understands how much strength that's given him. A moment wherein he talks to his younger self brings it all home.

Robbie gets the darker turn as Sarah comes with all manner of emotional baggage: Her mother died, her father was absent, and Sarah ends up cheating and leaving every man she's been with. Immediately upon meeting David she tells him she'll hurt him, which Sarah simultaneously fears and seems to pride herself on. Robbie is tasked with making Sarah not likable, but vulnerable. This comes through best in her moment opposite Lily Rabe as her mother. The two's sequence is by far the best moment in the movie. Rabe is luminous as the mother willing to pretend, who says the things children need to hear, and is willing to forsake sleep for a moment of connection. Rabe always makes a meal out of her moments in movies and this is another.

What makes Big Bold Beautiful Journey so special is how necessary it feels right now. We've had movies wherein a character goes back in time and interacts with a family member they've lost or recreates a past moment. But as the car rental team (hilariously played by a cursing, German-accented Phoebe Waller-Bridge and a gruff Kevin Kline) tells David, "Sometimes we have to perform to get to the truth." These moments are necessarily reality. They're the performance that runs through our subconscious. The things we wished we'd said in the moment. The people we wanted to be but weren't. It is through the art of going through these moments that one is able to find catharsis and peace.

There's a moment where Lily Rabe's character tells Robbie's Sarah, "Choose to be content first and enjoy the moment of happiness that comes from that." It's a moment that hits like a ton of bricks, particularly if you, like me, are dealing with trying to find a place in a world that feels depressing and chaotic. What A Big Bold Beautiful Journey ends up being is that balm from a mother, a parent saying you're special, a partner telling you they see you. It's the right thing you need to hear at the right time wrapped up in a beautifully nostalgic love for cinema and its own power to create meaning and comfort in our lives. It's a movie I needed and I feel others will as well.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is gorgeous in both cinematography and execution. A thrilling adventure where Robbie and Farrell play lush characters who are beautiful messes. It's a movie for the moment, and boy, do we need it.

Grade: A

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey hits theaters Friday.

Are you looking forward to taking A Big Bold Beautiful Journey? Leave your favorite Spinal Tap moment or line in the comments.

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