A Big Bold Beautfiul Journey - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



AV NIRVANA is member and reader-supported. When you purchase an item using our links, we might earn an affiliate commission.
​

Movie
Right off the bat, I was actually really stoked to see A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. It’s been too long since we’ve had a good set of rom-coms come to the theater, as the industry moved TOO heavily into sci-fi and Superhero films, leaving the lower-budget comedies and rom-coms out in the cold. So after watching the trailer for the film, I was hooked IMMEDIATELY, though I had some expectations considering this was directed by Kogonada, who is mainly known for his arthouse films… and of course 2 episodes of The Acolyte (the show that put the nail in the coffin for Disney Star Wars). Going in, I was excited, but afterwards I had to deal with a serious case of the “let downs”, as A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is one of those films that starts with great intentions, but has difficulties realizing that potential fully in film.

Life is full of doors, ranging from ones that are cracked open, allowing you to revisit them, and others doors are forever closed to returning. And yet, even more are still there waiting for us to walk through them and realize what CAN be if we choose so. Art house director Kogonada explores that theme in depth, crafting a romantic comedy vehicle to go on that journey, but strangely seems to miss many of the beats in doing so.

Sarah (Margot Robbie) and David (Colin Farrell) are two people who feel stuck in their middle-aged lives after watching so many doors close behind them that they are now bitterly just existing instead of living. After meeting by chance at a mutual friend’s wedding, Sarah and David are thrown together on a magical journey after both renting a car from the same (obviously magical) car rental agency. There, they visit a series of doors that lead each of them to a place in their past where they were happy, or had messed things up dramatically in a way that allows the two jaded people to heal themselves enough to see potential in each other.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is 100% an arthouse film disguised as a romantic comedy. On the surface, it’s sweet and simple, with Sarah and David being pushed together with the typical serendipitous turns of events, but around the midway point, the film starts to get really dark. Revisiting past experiences that traumatized and hardened Sarah to where she doesn’t want to commit to anyone, and jading David to where he gives up after finding the person he loves. All culminating in a single diner experience where the two of them are FORCED to confront what is so obviously damaged about each other, and realize that they have been the ones messing up their own lives. And honestly, that single diner sequence is the highlight of the film. It’s raw, powerful, and shows just how much damage the couple has experienced over their years on earth. Kogonada manages to make even Colin Farrell approachable and sympathetic when he usually caters to a more hard case character in his modern roles.

But here lies the problem as well. Those heartfelt moments of pain and grief may be the highlight of the film, and the very focus of what Kogonada was going for, but the romantic comedy vehicle that he uses to carry those themes across the finish line is rather insipid. The film has the ending very firmly in mind before the first 10 minutes are actually done, and you can predict exactly where the couple is going to end up from that 10-minute point on. Everything that happens is painfully cliched and rather insipid on screen. The romance feels rushed, and the background of the magical car rental agency is carefully glossed over. That’s not to say it’s a bad film, but the more in-depth and introspective bits that Kogonada was obviously gearing for are fantastic when realized, but the rest of the movie surrounding those points just feels overly syrupy and too cliched to mesh well with the darker aspects of the film. As such, the result is a movie that is at odds with itself, being incredibly deep, yet strangely surface-level at the same time, with both styles clashing abruptly with each other.




Rating:

Rated R for Language




Video:

I’m actually surprised that this didn’t get a 4K UHD release, considering that it was filmed using a 4.6K source and mastered in 4K for home video, before being downcoded to 1080p. I’m guessing it was due to the abysmal theatrical box office (not even half of its budget, and we all know movies need to make multiple times their budget just to break even due to marketing and theaters taking their cut of the profits), as it is a striking film that would have looked fantastic in 2160p. All that aside, this is a great-looking Blu-ray, with strong and well-saturated primary colors. Especially the reds and yellows and greens that make their way into the picture. Fine details are generally stunning, but I noticed a few soft shots here or there (such as when Sarah goes to visit her childhood home near the end, there’s a gauzy and hazy look that sort of softens things). Black levels remain deep and inky, and except for some intentionally looking flashback bits, this is a magnificent-looking Blu-ray.









Audio:

Much like the video, I’m kind of sad that we didn’t get an Atmos mix as the film was mixed that way for certain theaters. That being said, Sony’s 5.1 DTS-HD MA tracks are never bad, and this is no different. The film is a rom-com to the core, but still, there are plenty of moments where the sound stage lights up with music or the honking of city traffic. The center channel houses the dialog quite nicely, and there is even some bass thrown in for good measure (the car crash near the end, for example). I’m usually not one to give a 4.5/5 rating for a simple romantic comedy, as they tend to be very forward-heavy, but this is one of those rare instances where a rom-com mix is actually pretty dynamic.









Extras:

• Love's Ever-shifting Landscape - A Relatable Romance
• The Magic Behind the Scenes - Crafting the Journey
• A Big Bold Musical Number

Final Score:

​

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a film that has a great premise, but ends up being mildly entertaining due to how cliched and forced it felt. I really enjoyed the basis for the story coming from two severely damaged people needing to find someone to take a risk on, but the entire film just felt like it was “paint by the numbers”, and by the time the final, predictable ending came, I was already over it. The technical merits of the disc are quite nice, with great video/audio and some moderate extras, but overall, this is a hard one to recommend to Rom-com fans unless you really love both actors. A rental is my final recommendation.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Colin Farrell, Margot Robbie, Jennifer Grant, Hamish Linklater, Kevin Kline, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jodie Turner-Smith
Directed by: Kogonada
Written by: Seth Reiss
Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, English, French, Spanish
Studio: Universal Studios
Rated: R
Runtime: 109 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: December 23rd, 2025

Recommendation: Rental