Four years after landing on the annual Black List of the best unproduced new film screenplays, Seth Reiss’ A Big Bold Beautiful Journey has finally made it to the big screen. Purchased by Sony Pictures in a $50 million deal for “one of the market’s hottest scripts”, this romantic fantasy bagged Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell as its leads with South Korean filmmaker Kogonada on directing duties. A dreamy adult fairytale, the story follows the easy-on-the-eye A-listers as they head off on their big, bold, beautiful journey into their characters’ pasts, reckoning with regrets and trauma from their childhoods and former relationships.
Opening with a bizarre car rental sequence featuring Kevin Kline and Phoebe Waller-Bridge cameos, it feels at first like we’re back watching Farrell in Yorgos Lanthimos’ surreal yarn, The Lobster. The intriguing mystery continues when Robbie’s Sarah shows up and whisks him off on a trip through memory via forest-laden doorways and Burger King of all places. Partly inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s autobiographical pieces like The Boy and the Heron, it’s no coincidence that Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi was hired to score this whimsical piece.
Full of colour and believable chemistry from the two leads, this film is a modern take on the classic Hollywood romance. Featuring plenty of humour amid sentimental (but thankfully not saccharin) sequences, it’s heartfelt, relatable, and you might even well up with a smile. Perhaps Oscar nods are even on the cards…
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is out in UK cinemas on Friday.