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| Title: | A Big Bold Beautiful Journey |
| Year: | 2025 |
| Genre: | Romance fantasy drama |
| IMDb: | link |
| RT: | link |
The following review of A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025) is spoiler free. For clarity: "spoiler free" still means I will discuss how the film ends. It's a romantic comedy. I don't think the ending is a big secret. What I won't discuss is any details regarding how we get there.
I very nearly gave A Big Bold Beautiful Journey a miss after I saw how it was savaged by audiences and critics alike. At the time of writing, IMDb rates it a 6.1, while Rotten Tomatoes gives it 36% fresh in the critic rating and 59% in the audience rating. Ultimately, however, I decided to be true to my word to see every original thing that comes out of Hollywood, and because of that I can now attest that this is the rare film that gets from me the full four stars.
Looking at what critics and audiences write in their reviews I see where the discrepancy comes from. Complaints given seem to miss entirely the point of the film. The common complaint, that this is a film that has nothing original to add on the typical rom-com fare, and only tries to elevate itself with a lavish production, are ones that I find myself most startled by, because they come from sources which consistently rate highly pictures that I view as vapid and derivative. Again: I think the point of the film was missed. And in any case, it seems that on one thing I am happy to agree with the consensus: this, without a doubt, is a big, bold and beautiful film.
But it's far more than just pretty pictures, and I am really surprised by complaints that it is slow and boring: I was riveted throughout the entire run-time.
To dig a bit deeper and ultimately explain the discrepancy, here is a very quick and spoiler-free description of the film's premise: Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie play two people who are thrust by fate (in the form of a god-like GPS) into a joint road trip in a fantasy-enhanced reality where they experience key emotional moments from their past or variations thereof, and by this gradually develop as people and in relationship to each other.
Some have complained that their emotional moments are classic rom-com beats, which have no depth to them. Some have complained that we are whisked from one emotional beat to another, without having the connective tissue that is mundane life between them, so the feeling is that this is a highlights reel rather than a movie. I find the latter a particularly odd complaint, given that this is literally the premise.
So, what's going on here? Well, to my mind this film's substance (ignoring its beautiful facade) works on two separate levels: there's a surface level, which I think most viewers can enjoy if they only allow themselves to buy into the main premise; and then there's a deeper level, which is where the film truly shines with its originality and depth of exploration.
On the surface level, we are asked to watch an emotional journey unfold, and then to answer this: once everything else is stripped away, what does the journey of a life and of a relationship look like? Of course it is a "highlights reel". We are literally only examining the pivotal moments. These moments, however, are examined in great depth, with the same scenes often explored from multiple angles.
In this context, the comment I read by one professional critic that they did not buy the chemistry between Farrell and Robbie is baffling to me, because — unlike in your typical rom-com — the chemistry of the leads wasn't the point here. In fact, repeatedly we are asked to consider them as an impossible match. The journey described by the film, although in some cases joint and in some cases parallel by the two leads, is not a journey towards each other's arms. It is a journey in which two people who are angry at themselves and self-sabotage their lives and relationships learn to love and accept themselves, and to open themselves to the possibility of an honest attempt at a new relationship, one where they may be vulnerable to hurt, or may end up hurting the ones they love. I honestly don't think it would be a spoiler to say that in the romantic genre of films the leads always end up together, but in this case, uniquely, they don't end up thinking that they are each other's soul mates and will be together, in love, forever and ever. They're just willing to give it a go. The journey was never about their joint relationship. It was about them as individuals.
But the deeper level is the one that got me hooked. This film is an actor's studio. That's not some deeply subjective, far-fetched interpretation of mine, either: the film states its core thesis very explicitly right at the start, and then returns to it again and again. It is about acting. Or rather, in the terminology used by the film itself, it is about pretending. The thesis, as stated in the film's very first scene, is that we are all actors, and that while sometimes we pretend in order to hide the truth, quite often pretending is the only means in order to get to the deeper truth.
The imagery used in the film is not random. It consists of direct references to the processes of casting, of audition, of practicing a scene, of observing it from multiple perspectives, of getting notes on it from a director or an acting partner. Occasionally a scene is given and the actors need to play it out. Occasionally we are witnessing what looks like drama-therapy. And then there are plays within plays, and in one scene Margot Robbie even pretends to be a person who pretends to be pretending.
These are actors doing what they do best: exploring a character, finding the emotional truth in a situation, opening themselves up to an experience, playing off of each other, accepting the fake as real in order to find the real in the fake. And despite any complaints about the chemistry between the leads, both are wonderful, seasoned actors who know exactly what they are doing and demonstrate the inner workings of the acting process with such panache: Robbie as wide-eyed and open to experiences, Farrell as reserved and introspective, both perfectly suited for the characters they are embodying, even as these characters change and develop.
Other complaints are that the film is too self-serious to have enough fun with its premise. To this I say: "What?!". Once one understands the true intent of the film (and, truly, how can one miss it after Farrell's "audition", in scene 1, with the dialogue snippet "I am not an actor!"?) so much of its dialogue is witty, tongue-in-cheek references to this basic premise. My favourite of these looks to be something of an in-joke: in one scene, Robbie asks Farrell if his accent is real and he replies "Why would anybody fake an accent?" — which is hilarious as soon as one realises that both actors in this dialogue scene have dialect coaches to help them with their fake accents.
The casting of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kevin Kline in supporting roles as two car rental agents — or maybe casting agents — is also pitch perfect, as the two are perfect vessels in order to channel the absurdist humour of what is going on. (And to any who reads this and wants to complain that they find Waller-Bridge to be annoying: clearly Phoebe Waller-Bridge herself has read some Internet comments to that effect, too, and is responding in this film by being an intentionally insufferable car rental agent; and she is hilarious at it.)
I will say no more, so as not to spoil the fun to anyone who is convinced by this review to give the film a chance — by all accounts, not many of you will have seen it otherwise; the film grossed a measly $20 million on a $45 million production budget (after which it was bought by Sony for $50 million), and this does not include a further $20 million that was spent on marketing. All I will add, to quote from the film's first scene, is that "Doors are tricky".
To sum up: I do not subscribe to the idea that this film is schmaltz. It is heartfelt without becoming self-serious. It is insightful without spoon-feeding the audience. It is absurdist without being absurd. It is a big, bold, beautiful journey to those willing to put aside their cynical glasses and immerse themselves in it.