There’s a moment towards the end of Kogonada’s “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” where David (Colin Farrell) and Sarah (Margot Robbie) are sitting at a table across from their respective exes. The exes are waiting for David and Sarah to explain why they broke up with them – and not the canned answers they gave the first time around (because this has all happened before), but the truth.
After a long silence, David finally says, “I’ll go.” He hard launches into a monologue where he explains what his damage is in detail, taking advantage of this fantastical opportunity to finally be honest and say how he feels.
“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” is a series of “I’ll go” moments – that is to say, a string of sequences where its two stars tell each other and the audience exactly how they feel about everything, falling in love by way of therapy-speak in a film that barely delivers a surface-level explanation of the leap of faith that is falling in love. The bare bones, dully-framed characters feel more like faint impressions of people than people themselves, and the script, penned by Seth Reiss, feels like a waste of both of its actors’ and Kogonada’s strengths.
Read Sammie’s full review on Rough Draft
