{"id":13071,"date":"2025-09-19T21:32:41","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T01:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=13071"},"modified":"2025-11-11T11:50:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T16:50:58","slug":"a-big-bold-beautiful-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/09\/19\/a-big-bold-beautiful-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"A Big Bold Beautiful Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A Big Bold Beautiful Journey<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Drama-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Kogonada\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Seth Reiss\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Joe Hisaishi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Benjamin Loeb\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 19, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Kevin Kline, Jodie Turner-Smith, Lily Rabe, Hamish Linklater, Jennifer Grant, Sarah Gadon, Billy Magnussen, Chloe East, Michelle Mao, Shelby Simmons, Jason Kravits, Simon Khan, Lucy Thomas, Brandon Perea, Yuvi Hecht.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Think of A Big Bold Beautiful Journey<\/strong> as Charlie Kaufman Lite. It\u2019s rooted in magical realism, but it\u2019s about as deep as a flatbread pizza. It touches on some heavy themes (loss, trauma and relationship adversity) yet tries to keep things light and breezy. It\u2019s a film at odds with itself.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Two people, David (Farrell, The Batman) and Sarah (Robbie, Barbie), meet at the weeding of a mutual friend. They\u2019re attracted to one another, but they both have good reasons why they shouldn\u2019t get together. They\u2019re both bad at relationships. David tends to bail when things get too serious. Sarah is a chronic cheater. She even warns him not to get too close because she\u2019ll just ending up breaking his heart.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The titular trip begins when the GPS (voice of Jodie Turner-Smith) in David\u2019s rental car asks him if he wants to take a big, bold, beautiful journey. He says yes. It tells him to stop at a Burger King where he spots Sarah enjoying a meal. They talk some more before parting ways. They\u2019re not apart for very long. Sarah\u2019s rental car won\u2019t start. David\u2019s GPS tells him to bring her along. They\u2019re directed to various locations where they find magical doors leading to significant events in their lives (David\u2019s high school play, Sarah\u2019s mother dying). Basically, it\u2019s a journey of self-discovery for both parties.<\/p>\n

\u00a0They say a trip is not defined by the destination but the journey getting there. I believe that to be true. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey<\/strong> confirms it. However, it does tend to meander. It takes its time reaching where we all know it\u2019s going. The road trippers make some interesting stops along the way. Some, like the high school play (the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), are lively. Others, like a visit to a lighthouse from David\u2019s past, not so much. One in particular, Sarah visiting her mom (Rabe, Vice) who sees her as a 12YO (we see her as an adult), rings with emotional resonance. Sarah\u2019s never forgiven herself for not being there when she died. It\u2019s a touching reunion. Unfortunately, the movie falls emotionally flat in other scenes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The two leads do an excellent job playing lonely, troubled souls seeking an emotional connection despite admittedly being bad at relationships. Robbie, playing a slightly older Manic Pixie Dream Girl, is especially good. She gets off some good lines and, at the same time, makes you care about her. Farrell shows why he\u2019s still in the acting game. He perfectly plays an emotionally unavailable guy disappointed with how his life has turned out. His parents always told him he was special, but things didn\u2019t turn out the way they hoped for him. What\u2019s really great is the chemistry between the two movie stars. They go well together even though their characters actively fight it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of my favorite things A Big Bold Beautiful Journey<\/strong> is the inclusion of Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag). They play the owners, \u201cThe Mechanic\u201d and \u201cThe Cashier\u201d respectively, of the car rental place where David and Sarah obtain the cars they use to get to the wedding. They\u2019re both great. Bridge is dryly profane while Kline is just this side of mysterious. It\u2019s good to see him again. It\u2019s been a while since he\u2019s been in anything.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Kogonada (Columbus), A Big Bold Beautiful Journey<\/strong> is gorgeous to look at thanks to cinematographer Benjamin Loeb. The main characters are shown walking in the rain with umbrellas on a few occasions. It perfectly captures the romantic atmosphere Kogonada is looking for. The soundtrack sounds like something from an early 2000s movie like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Garden State. It\u2019s definitely an attractive production. It\u2019s the pacing that makes it less than great.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A Big Bold Beautiful Journey<\/strong> is okay. I didn\u2019t hate it, but I don\u2019t love it either. It doesn\u2019t commit to being a romantic drama or magical realism. It seesaws between the two never striking the right balance. The tonal imbalance doesn\u2019t kill it, but it definitely holds it back. Still, it\u2019s a trip worth taking once.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Drama-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Kogonada\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Seth Reiss\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Joe Hisaishi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Benjamin Loeb\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 19, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Kevin Kline, Jodie Turner-Smith, Lily Rabe, Hamish Linklater, Jennifer Grant, Sarah Gadon, Billy Magnussen, Chloe East, Michelle Mao, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-fi-fantasy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/A-Big-Bold-Beautiful-Journey-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13074,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13071\/revisions\/13074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}