'A Big Bold Beautiful Journey' Review: Farell & Robbie shine but can't save this overindulgent mess

A Quirky Beginning With Colin Farrell Stuck on the Road

At its heart, the film follows David, played by Colin Farrell, who begins as an ordinary man stuck with a broken-down car. Fate, or rather Kogonada’s peculiar sense of cinematic irony, guides him to a rental agency right next door.

Except this is no ordinary agency. It looks like a giant warehouse, manned by a woman (played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) who swears like it is punctuation and an elderly man who acts as if he has known David for years. They already have his headshots, know personal details, and insist on installing a GPS in his car. Creepy, bizarre, but deliciously Kogonada.

The strangeness sets the tone. We are not here for realism. We are here for a trip through memories, regrets, and moments that can be rewritten. Enter Sarah, played by Margot Robbie, whom David meets at his sister’s wedding.

Their meetings keep happening in places where they should not. Their connection feels accidental until it begins to feel destined. Soon, the GPS starts guiding them through mysterious doors that open directly into their pasts. Each stop forces them to confront what they lived, what they regret, and what they wish they could have changed.

The Signature Kogonada Touch

Anyone who has seen After Yang knows Kogonada is no stranger to blurring the line between the poetic and the mundane. His cinema is meditative, often designed like video essays with chapters disguised as visual motifs.

Here, there are no explicit chapter titles, but the concept of doors into memories works as his structural device. Each door is another essay, another brushstroke on the canvas of his protagonists’ lives.

Benjamin Loeb’s cinematography complements this perfectly. Many frames look like paintings that could hang in a gallery. The lighting and symmetry capture the initial distance between David and Sarah with such precision that you almost feel the space between them in your chest.

Subtle visual storytelling, never on the nose, is what Kogonada excels at, and he delivers again here.

A First Half That Holds You in Intrigue

The film’s opening hour grips you with curiosity. Each stop through a door feels like a mystery box waiting to be opened. The pacing, though deliberate, keeps you invested because the setup is so peculiar.

You are constantly guessing: who is really behind this strange agency, why are David and Sarah being paired together, and what is the end goal of this bizarre journey.

The chemistry between Farrell and Robbie begins slowly, almost awkwardly. That awkwardness is intentional. It mirrors the hesitant steps of two people forced together by circumstances they do not understand. By the time the spark finally arrives, it has been earned.

The romance begins to breathe in melancholic tones rather than heady passion, and it works.

When the Doors Become Too Many

And yet, the very device that is so intriguing at first starts to test patience. The doors to the past keep opening, and while each has emotional weight, the frequency and scattered nature dilute the impact. Instead of sharpening the narrative, it begins to feel indulgent.

At one point, the film even morphs into a musical sequence. It is a bold creative swing, and while fun, it arrives so out of left field that the film begins to wobble under its own ambition.

The problem is not the number of trips into memory but the looseness with which they are stitched together. The narrative momentum slows, the intrigue stretches thin, and the beauty begins to blur into excess.

The Redemption of the Penultimate Door

Just when you fear the film has lost its footing entirely, the penultimate act yanks you back in. The protagonists confront the most important door of all, one that holds the power to reshape how they live with themselves.

This is the door that defines David and Sarah beyond their romance. It is not just about love but about confronting guilt, making peace with choices, and daring to forgive themselves.

The emotional punch here works. It refocuses the story, reminding you of why you were drawn in the first place. For all its scattered indulgence, Kogonada knows when to strike a nerve.

Colin Farrell Brings Warmth and Vulnerability

Colin Farrell, meanwhile, plays David with an everyman naturalness that anchors the more surreal parts of the film. His warmth, charm, and quiet vulnerability make him instantly likable.

While Robbie gets the more dramatic arc, Farrell ensures David never feels overshadowed. His chemistry with Robbie is not instant fireworks but a slow burn that matures into something richer and sadder.

And yes, it does not hurt that Farrell continues to look like the handsomest man on screen. His charisma helps sell even the strangest of narrative turns.

Margot Robbie Steals the Spotlight

If there is one performance that anchors the film, it is Margot Robbie’s Sarah. She is written with more layers and contradictions than Farrell’s David, and Robbie plays every shade with commitment. Sarah is a self-proclaimed coward who has spent her life making bad choices, especially with the men she loved.

Her guilt festers into self-sabotage, yet her arc of confronting her past with her mother hits like a sharp sting.

Robbie’s gift is her ability to balance magnetism with vulnerability. In the first half, she embodies Sarah’s mystery and carefree edge. In the second, she carries her remorse and bold decisions with a bruised elegance. It is a performance that lingers long after the credits.

When Beauty Turns Into Indulgence

For all its beauty, the film ultimately falters under its own weight. Kogonada’s style, usually a strength, becomes too self-indulgent. The metaphors stretch, the structure sprawls, and the delicate love story at its center begins to lose impact. It is not a collapse but a soft deflation.

By the end, you are left admiring the craft, the ideas, the performances, but wishing for tighter storytelling.

The film still leaves you with a sense of purity and wonder, even if not complete satisfaction. It is an experience you are glad to have had, even if you will also remember the moments where it dragged.

Big Bold Beautiful and a Little Too Much

The title of the film is its most honest review. It is big with ambition, bold with its experimental swings, and beautiful with its aesthetic frames and performances. But the journey, while often magical, is also heavy, scattered, and occasionally frustrating.

You walk away happy you saw Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie together, enchanted by the visuals, intrigued by the ideas, but not entirely fulfilled. Still, it is far from a failure. If nothing else, it proves that even when Kogonada misses his sweet spot, he creates cinema worth talking about.