A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Parent Guide

Have you ever wanted to break out of your routine? Go on an adventure? Rediscover yourself? If someone asked you to go on a big, bold, beautiful journey, what would you say? What if that someone was your car?

For David (Colin Farrell), the answer is yes. Depressed by his failed relationships and unfulfilled dreams, David is on his way home from a wedding, where he flirted with Sarah (Margot Robbie), another guest. Wistful over a lost opportunity, David takes a risk and agrees to follow the advice of his rental car’s GPS.

Almost immediately, he crosses paths with Sarah, who also has a rental with a chatty GPS. Together they follow as the GPS leads them to a variety of doors and stairways, which open to episodes in their pasts. As they confront their failures, flaws, and heartbreaks, they have the chance to rethink who they are and what they want out of life.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is both charmingly original and tediously dull. The premise is intriguing and occasionally beautiful, but the dialog can be pretentious, and some of the situations David and Sarah find themselves in waver between cringe-y and unbelievable. I wanted to like this film, but I often felt more annoyed than entertained.

It’s not just the clunky dialogue that’s the problem, but the volume of profanity. This is a romantic drama, and I can’t see any reason for this film to come in at 30 sexual expletives, with another three dozen profanities. Other negative content is minor, with brief drinking and smoking, a non-fatal car crash, and no on-screen sex (not even a morning after scene). The cussing alone is responsible for this movie’s Restricted rating, and that’s enough to make this family movie critic bang her head on the keyboard over and over again.

Despite the movie’s less-charming features, it has its good points, primarily the skill of its principal actors. Margot Robbie is a magician, using her beauty and charm to distract David and the audience from the self-loathing that traps her in her past. And Colin Farrell wields that lilting Irish accent and those soulful eyes to keep us under his spell as he exorcises his own past demons. The performances are almost good enough to overcome some of the weaker dialogue, but not quite. This isn’t a big, bold, beautiful journey: it feels more like a confused hike – but at least the scenery is good.

About author

Kirsten Hawkes

Kirsten Hawkes has a BA in Political Science and English and has worked in international development and medical education and marketing. Kirsten enjoys reading, watching movies, and debating politics with her husband and sometimes unwilling children.