Park Jooong Eun, aka Koganada, is a director who took the country by storm with his breakout hit “Columbus”, where he won the Best Film Award, starring John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson, in 2017. He followed that up with another success, “After Yang,” starring Colin Ferrell in 2021. In his latest film, “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” he teams with Ferrell once again, and as an added bonus, he recruited Margot Robbie to work on this movie as well. With this kind of star power, you know it’s gotta be big. Right? Well, let’s get into the nitty gritty of this film/story.

David (Colin Farrell) is a man who is about to take a journey but his car has a boot on it and he sees a sign for a car rental agency so he goes there to rent a car to take his journey. The agents played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kevin Kline convince him to use the GPS recorder.  This recorder takes this man on a proverbial “Big Bold Beautiful Journey”. Along the way, he comes across another intrepid traveler, Sarah (Margot Robbie), whom the GPS tells him to take with him on his journey. Together, they learn and discover something about themselves. The question is, is it the right message for the audience to get behind this film?

This story has an interesting premise to it. The GPS navigates the car to different locations where there are doors. The pair have to go in the doors that lead to a lighthouse, David’s high school, or a museum Sarah likes. These are just a few of the places the doors lead. The story as a whole tries to give the pair an idea about their pasts. Are these two meant for each other or not? That is the question. Have what they learned about themselves and their lives by going into and out of the doors made  an impact on them? Was the whole car rental agency a setup? These are questions they need to find on their own. The idea of this kind of story is a bit preposterous, though. Happiness or finding the right person doesn’t work this way, unfortunately. Life is a bit more jaded than this film leads one to believe. 

The production design is amazing in this movie, though. The road trip the pair take leads them through green hills, and each of the doors are in an interesting place. As I mentioned, the light house scene is absolutely gorgeous.  The film uses rain and umbrellas in a way I haven’t seen before. They create a beautiful aesthetic at times and come together as a mosaic of colors. Rain is usually a dark metaphor in films, but here, it is used as a wondrous thing. Even the costumes play into the themes that the filmmaker is going for. Which is beautiful and colorful. Everything comes together to create something wonderful.

Colin Farrell is an actor who has been doing great work for years, but lately, his projects have meant more to me, so he, as an actor, has meant more to me. The Banshees of Inisherin, The Batman/The Penguin, and Sugar have all hit my sweet spot as a film aficionado and television watcher. He has started doing characters that have a sympathetic side to them that I, as a soft hearted guy, can get behind. His role in this film, for instance, is right up my alley. A guy that hasn’t found the one love he’s looking for. Sure, he’s had relationships, but they weren’t the one for him. I’ve felt this way my entire life. That one person has eluded me. So I just go through my life thinking maybe it’ll happen but mostly likely not. I’m happy being alone, though. I felt that about this character until Sarah came into his life. Ferrell does a great job showing the side of his character that I could relate to. He’s more of an amazing actor the older he gets, and the better off the roles are.

Margot Robbie came on the Hollywood scene with a bang in her breakout role in The Wolf of Wallstreet. Ever since she’s done great work in I’Tonya, Babylon, and Barbie. Here, she plays a woman who believes she’s bad with men and feels bad about being beside her mother at her passing. This seems like a stereotypical twenty something woman to me. Someone who didn’t have her priorities in order and has made mistakes in her dating life because she didn’t want to commit to anyone because she may hurt them. This is like a lot of young women today. Going on the journey shows her that she may be able to be loved and give love back in exchange. That’s what she needs in her life. Robbie plays this character with some vulnerable characteristics I haven’t seen her play in other films. She’s showing range as an actress. The story gave her a character she can pull various things from. She does just that, and it’s good to see. Her character journey was one of ups and downs, though. I don’t see how things ended as a realistic way things would normally happen, though.

There was a hint of comedy in this romantic story, though. Specifically by the Waller-Bridge Bridge character. She was a bit vulgar and straightforward in her thoughts. The Robbie character wasn’t exactly a piece of polished work either, but she was much better regarding her language than the Waller-Bridge character was. With a few of the scenes, there was a hint of laughter. I laughed at some of the moments involving the Farrell character going back to his high school, which he didn’t have fond memories of. I think we’d all laugh if we saw ourselves back in high school as a fifteen year old sophomore. The mixture of comedy thrown in here helped break up the tense more character driven scenes between the Ferrell and Robbie characters. I liked having a few laughs at the various scenarios within this film and story.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a beautiful film with a great message about love, loss, family, and companionship. It’s a movie in a jaded world that filmgoers need. Except it has an ending that is too much of a cop out to me. Life isn’t perfect, and films shouldn’t have perfect endings all the time. People aren’t always happy and so movies shouldn’t show happy endings all the time. I loved this film up until the end. I cried, and I was emotionally invested in these characters and this concept from the beginning of the story. Even though it was a bit contrived at times. Ferrell and Robbie were both very good. Waller-Bridge was quite funny in her limited role. I came into this movie wanting to love it, but I came away in the end, not believing what happened at the end. I guess I’m a jaded guy because my life hasn’t gone that well. So happy endings are something I am suspicious of. There is no doubt Koganada is a fantastic filmmaker. This particular story left me a bit upset, though. I wish it hadn’t. 

2 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen