“Director Kogonada’s A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” sounds less like a movie title and more like something printed on an inspirational wall calendar, and unfortunately the film itself is just as saccharine and empty as its name suggests.
This romantic fantasy drama follows David (Colin Farrell) and Sarah (Margot Robbie), two lonely strangers who meet at a wedding and embark on a magical road trip guided by a mystical GPS that somehow sends them driving into their own memories. It’s a premise that sounds whimsical on paper, but in execution it’s an absolute mess. The central gimmick never feels convincing or coherent, operating on dream logic whenever it’s convenient and leaving the story feeling disjointed, nonsensical, and frustratingly convoluted.
Farrell and Robbie are both talented performers, but they generate virtually zero romantic chemistry together. Their relationship never feels believable, and their characters are written as shallow stick figures rather than actual people. The film spends so much time insisting that these two are deeply connected that it forgets to give viewers a reason to care.
The screenplay piles on sentimental speeches, life lessons, and platitude-laden dialogue with all the subtlety of a greeting card. Every emotional beat feels forced, manipulative, and desperately engineered to make the audience cry. Instead of earning its emotions, the film constantly reaches for easy sentimentality, resulting in a story that is predictable, emotionally hollow, and surprisingly dull.
Kogonada aims for profound and poetic but lands squarely in pretentious territory. The film mistakes vagueness for depth and complexity for meaning, burying a simple love story beneath layers of self important fantasy mechanics that never come together. What should have been magical feels awkward, what should have been moving feels manufactured, and what should have been romantic feels strangely lifeless.
“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a bad movie.” It’s overly sweet, emotionally manipulative, pretentious, and ultimately empty. It’s a long drive to nowhere, guided by a GPS that apparently lost its way.
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 