A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie team up for a whimsical, minor-key romantic fantasy that struggles to be more profound than it is light-headed.
Destiny Rides Again: Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie
Image courtesy of Sony Pictures.
The romantic fantasy is not an easy genre to pull off well. However, with Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie in the driving seat, the prospect here looks rosy. In addition, the director is Kogonada (Columbus, After Yang), whose meticulous aesthetic and deadpan style could be perfect for this sort of thing. Could be…
David Longley (Farrell) enjoys his own company. “I’ve never been happier,” he says on the phone, before leaving his Downtown apartment for a wedding. He then sees that his car has been clamped and at the last minute is forced to hire a vehicle from the unconventional Car Rental Agency. The latter is an idiosyncratic facility, with a problematic electric front door, recalling the off-track portal that Demi Moore first entered in The Substance. But then unusual doors are a thematic thing here, representing the portals we choose to walk through at key moments in our lives. Once inside the Agency, David strolls into a space the size of a warehouse and is made to go through an exacting ritual in front of a desk commanded by Kevin Kline and, in a German accent, Phoebe Waller-Bridge. There is only one car, a 1994 Saturn, and David is obliged to accept one with its own GPS.
What David doesn’t realise is that the GPS has a mind of its own and once he arrives at the outdoor wedding ceremony – in the pouring rain – he meets the most beautiful woman in the world, Sarah (Margot Robbie), who asks him “will you marry me?” She also explains that she’s a serial cheater, subsists on a fast-food diet and admits she’s “horrible; a coward” and “a fucking monster.” In addition, she’s being taken on the same big bold beautiful journey as David…
The oddness at the heart of all this is not lost on its protagonists as they encounter yet another free-standing doorway into a chapter of their past lives. “Did that really just happen?” asks Sarah for verification from her new companion. David and Sarah’s disbelief at the unfolding trips down their respective lanes of memory is initially part of the pleasure, but soon the characters embrace the chance to redress their past errors of judgement, or even to repeat them. While the stars have fun with their banter, there is a decided lack of sexual chemistry, and the music box score merely exacerbates the whimsey. Somehow Farrell, who has indulged in his share of offbeat projects (Seven Psychopaths, The Lobster, The Banshees of Inisherin), seems too smart here to override the silliness. In its defence, the film is nothing if not heartfelt, like a latter-day A Christmas Carol struggling not to come off as a piece of experimental avant-garde theatre plucked from Off-Off-Broadway.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Colin Farrell, Margot Robbie, Kevin Kline, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lily Rabe, Billy Magnussen, Sarah Gadon, Brandon Perea, Chloe East, Hamish Linklater, Jennifer Grant, Shelby Simmons, and the voice of Jodie Turner-Smith (as the GPS).
Dir Kogonada, Pro Bradley Thomas, Ryan Friedkin, Youree Henley and Seth Reiss, Screenplay Seth Reiss, Ph Benjamin Loeb, Pro Des Mary Florence Brown and Katie Byron, Ed Susan E. Kim and Jonathan Alberts, Music Joe Hisaishi, Costumes Arjun Bhasin, Sound Stephen Barden, Dialect coaches Jessica Drake and Elizabeth Himelstein.
Columbia Pictures/Imperative Entertainment/30West/Original Films/Chapel Place Productions-Sony Pictures.
109 mins. USA. 2025. UK and US Rel: 19 September 2025. Cert. 15.
