Big Picture Big Sound

"A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" poses a simple idea: what might you gain by re-experiencing key moments in your personal history with your current knowledge? It's a sentiment we've all had as we ponder the choices we made.

Unfortunately, the film links that premise to a not-quite-fully-baked love story. Directed by Kogonada, it follows Sarah (Margot Robbie) and David (Colin Farrell), two emotionally adrift strangers who, after a chance encounter at a wedding, embark on a surreal road trip guided by a mystical GPS. This fantastical journey leads them to mysterious doors, behind which lie key moments from their pasts - memories and experiences that have shaped their identities and their capacity for connection. The plot treads familiar ground, though it does so through a visually inventive landscape.

The film's strongest assets are undoubtedly its visual and auditory components. Kogonada crafts a real-yet-unreal world as Sarah and David traverse from door to door, discovering each other and rediscovering themselves. Each memory has a dreamlike quality, but they don't fully tilt into fantastical unreality. It's not quite full-on Wes Anderson meticulous, but there are certainly touches of his aesthetic to be found throughout the film.

Providing sonic punctuation to all the catharsis is a lovely score composed by Joe Hisaishi. Understated and immersive, it complements the varying emotional tones with grace and subtlety, weaving seamlessly with a curated selection of indie and pop tracks that add texture without distraction.

Robbie and Farrell bring undeniable individual charisma to their roles. Robbie continues her streak of captivating performances; even in the face of some weak dialogue, she imbues Sarah with a fascinating vulnerability. Farrell, in the midst of an intriguing phase of his career, delivers a melancholic and sincere performance, though he too is hamstrung by stilted dialogue. His gameness is on full display in an unexpected scene at David's high school that delivers a genuine smile and laugh. Their performances are compelling, but their chemistry remains under established. The connection between Sarah and David is slow to develop and often feels declared rather than shown. Their experiences reliving the joy and pain of their memories frequently interrupt the organic evolution of their attraction, and the magical GPS is left to do the heavy lifiting.

The film's approach to trauma and healing, while earnest, follows a predictable arc. It feels a bit too on-the-nose for a film otherwise so successful in its creative premise and original vision. It gestures toward profundity but doesn't always grasp it.

"A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" cannot help but feel like a descendent of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "What Dreams May Come." Like "Eternal Sunshine," its main characters take a surreal, conceptual journey through their memories. But where Kaufman's film surprises and challenges with great emotional depth and narrative complexity, "Journey" leans more on aesthetic beauty to carry its weight. Visually, it shares DNA with "What Dreams May Come," particularly in its painterly representation of this conceptual realm. Mercifully, it avoids that film's excessive tendencies, favoring restraint and introspection over spectacle. But for fans seeking the fundamental vibe of "Eternal Sunshine," this may be worth seeking out.

Ultimately, "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" is a film worth watching for its essential artistry, the captivating presence of its leads, and the music that underpins their travels. It is held back by some odd characterizations and monologue pretending to be dialogue, and it's not as groundbreaking as the films it follows. It is fair to say that its beauty, sincerity, and ambition to tell an original story make it a worthwhile, if imperfect, cinematic experience.