FILM REVIEW
A BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY
Rated R
109 Minutes
Released September 19th
This will not be your normal moviegoing experience, so release those expectations. You will be entering the minds, the psyches of our two main characters, “David,” played by Colin Farrell, and “Sarah,” played by Margot Robbie. This is a hypnotic story with a half footprint in reality and half in imagination, that takes place in the thoughts, memories, and dreams of David and Sarah.
As is the case with memories, the scenes are how the characters remember them. Many of the awe-inspiring panoramas are of Southern California landscapes, the same terrain and coastline which mesmerized me when I first moved here at the age of 14 from the Midwest and East Coast. The geography of our state continues to inspire me with its vastness and beauty every time I see these views.
The guide for the journey our characters take is a rental car with a computerized screen whose GPS is voiced superbly by Jodie Turner-Smith. The rental car agency is the gate to the subconscious, and its front desk is managed beautifully by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kevin Kline in great cameo roles.
The visual landscape of their dreams and thoughts is gorgeous, natural landscapes with extraordinary lighting, paintings, and vivid memories. The two can take part in each other’s memories and make comments and observations, providing support when the scenes become all too real, and they form a bond despite each being a dedicated loner.
To truly understand and enjoy this film, it is necessary to appreciate the art of the director, Kogonada. As a young man, he did a PhD dissertation on the art of Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, who had started making films in the silent movie era, and whose best-known film was Tokyo Story (1953). Ozu had a rich filmmaking career and was well-known in Japan, making both comedies and dramatic films. Kogonada was inspired by Ozu’s works to become a filmmaker himself and has built his reputation as a video essayist. His first video essay was on the show Breaking Bad in 2012.
His documentary, Hands of Bresson, was voted one of the best of 2014 by Sight & Sound magazine. So his style is built on reflection and is like Wes Anderson’s, very composed, but with movement and more expansive landscapes. Ozu was born in Seoul and emigrated to Indiana and then Chicago, where he grew up. In a 2015 interview, Kogonada compared his video essays to the art of making sushi: “With sushi, every cut matters. And so do the ingredients. Those two ongoing choices are the difference. What you select, and how you cut it.” This informs his style of filmmaking, which has a Zen quality.
Farrell and Robbie are natural and endearing in roles that are not their usual type. It might be easy to think that these two just stepped right into starring roles from the beginning of their careers, but they have both spent blood, sweat, and tears building their skills and reputation. Robbie does not usually endow roles with the vulnerability she shows here. Both actors earned their success in this industry through perseverance, and both have never lost the ability to “pay it forward.”
As a youth, Farrell once dropped out of acting school and was turned down to be a member of an Irish boy band. Then he started getting small roles on film and TV, and his career took off. He is one of a handful of actors who can wrap himself in roles that are hugely diverse. When he was called to replace Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus after the actor’s death, Farrell donated his salary to Ledger’s young daughter.
Robbie grew up on a sugar cane farm in Australia owned by her grandparents. In her late teens, she moved to Melbourne to pursue acting. She earned a guest star role on a soap opera and made such an impression on the director that they made her character a series regular. Then she moved to Hollywood for her career, never looking back.
Her breakthrough role was in Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, and with the salary she earned, she paid off her mother’s mortgage. She won critical acclaim for her portrayal of ice skater “Tonya Harding” in I, Tonya. and to play “Harley Quinn” in Suicide Squad, she did intensive research on multiple personalities, trained in boxing, gymnastics, weapons, aerial skills, and learned to hold her breath underwater for 5 minutes.
It’s hard for today’s audiences, who are used to breakneck action, to appreciate a more cerebral quality. If you expect a roller coaster ride going into this film, you will be disappointed. It’s a thoughtful story about dreams, reality, and memories, and it poses the question, “What is real?” There is no magnetism pulling the characters together, but rather an understanding of the other’s life as they come to understand their own memories. The message is to take the risk, or you may never reach your full happiness.
Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com.