A Big Bold Beautiful Bore

2023 was the year of Margot Robbie. Scoring an Oscar nomination, becoming the highest paid actress in the world, as well as starring in and producing the highest grossing film of the year, 2023 belonged to Robbie. In the two years since she has largely remained behind the camera. As well as delivering her first child she has been producing successful projects like Saltburn, My Old Ass, and the upcoming Wuthering Heights film. Her big appearance this year is in Kogonada's romantic fantasy film, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, which premiered this past week. Being her first performance as an actress since Barbie, the pressure was stacked on Robbie's shoulders, but did the film deliver?

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is the third project directed by South Korean filmmaker, Kogonada, and his second collaboration with Colin Farrell after 2021's After Yang. This latest film follows two lost souls David and Sarah, played by Farrell and Robbie as they go on a magical quest, reliving important moments of their early lives and getting to know each other in the process.

Like all of Kogonada's other films, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is beautifully shot. Employing the skills of cinematographer, Benjamin Loeb and the first Western score from legendary Japanese composer, the film is a feast for the senses at times. The colors are vibrant, the performances feel honest, and there's more than a few shots that I wouldn't mind hung up on my wall. Also the costumes by Arjun Bhasin are remarkably eye-catching for a non-period film. But if you're reading this review, chances are you haven't heard a lot of great things about this film in the brief time since its release. Despite being out for less than a week, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey has been torn apart by critics; most infamously by the New York Post who gave the film a score of 0/100 on Metacritic.

The thing is, this is clearly a very competently made film, where it struggles most is in the writing department. Simply put, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is sappy and underwritten. Screenwriter, Seth Reiss immensely struggles with dialogue, especially when it comes to Robbie's character Sarah. The film is desperately trying to have the emotional weight and poignance of Everything Everywhere All at Once or All of Us Strangers but it's a just a classic example of style over substance. It's just not nearly as profound as the writers think it is. You can be as mystical and fake-deep as you want but that all goes out the window the second you decide to include Burger King product placement in the first twenty minutes.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey probably would've made a fairly decent 80 minute film; but even with a runtime of less than two hours, the film feels like it overstays its welcome with several miserable, meandering scenes that left me checking my watch for the time. There's only so much over sentimentality one can take.

Something tells me this will be a hit with the Hallmark movie-loving crowd who are willing to overlook cliché dialogue and sappy stories, and all the power to them.

While it's certainly not one of the best films of 2025, I commend Kogonada and company for producing a script this original in an industry dominated by sequels, reboots, and franchises. It's always heartbreaking to see a film like this fail so spectacularly, but not every risk pays off and this is just one of those unfortunate cases. The film is already predicted to be one of the biggest box office bombs of 2025 so far and will likely be a black mark on Margot Robbie and Kogonada's career for years to come.