Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell in “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.”
Sony Pictures Entertainment/Columbia Pictures
Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell’s A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is being met with harsh reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
Directed by Kogonada (After Yang, The Acolyte), A Big Bold Beautiful Journey opens Friday in theaters nationwide. The official summary for A Big Bold Beautiful Journey reads, “Some doors bring you to your past. Some doors lead you to your future. And some doors change everything.
“Sarah (Robbie) and David (Farrell) are single strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on A Big Bold Beautiful Journey – a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live important moments from their respective pasts, illuminating how they got to where they are in the present…and possibly getting a chance to alter their futures.”
Rated R, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey also stars Kevin Kline, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Hamish Linklater, Lily Rabe, Jennifer Grant and the voice of Jodie Turner-Smith.
As of Friday, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey has earned a 39% “rotten” rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 107 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus, audience summary and Popcornmeter score based on verified user ratings are still pending.
What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’?
Peter Howell of the Toronto Star is among the top critics on RT who gives the film a “rotten” rating, writing in his review summary, “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey sounds convoluted, that’s because it is. But its biggest sin isn’t confusion; it’s indifference. The film is so enamored with its own premise that it never notices the magic dissipating with every [kilometer].”
Also giving A Big Bold Beautiful Journey a “rotten” rating on RT is Brandon Yu of the New York Times, who writes, “You would think that for a movie with such a title there’d be a bit more big lights and conventional grandiosity, but there’s a formal limpness to the way it tugs at one’s heartstrings.”
Lou Thomas of Empire Magazine has some positive things to say about the film, but ultimately gives it a “rotten” rating on RT, writing, “Though occasionally inventive and affecting, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a tonal mess. Romantic and other emotional struggles depicted may ring true, but that and strong lead performances can’t save the uneven whole.”
Kritsy Puchko of Mashable used the title of the film to sum up her feelings about the movie on RT, writing, “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey felt neither big, bold, or beautiful. Its journey is winding. Its message is earnest, and yet I was unmoved, even bored.”
Dan Jolin on Time Out is among the top critics on RT who gives A Big Bold Beautiful Journey a “fresh” rating, writing in his review summary, “Despite an occasional burst of self-mocking glibness, this is a movie that isn’t afraid of sincerity, and it brings a bit of silver-lining energy to our overcast world.”
Ty Burr of the Washington Post also gives A Big Bold Beautiful Journey a “fresh” rating on RT, writing, “Like many long-shot rolls of the dice, it’s a movie that sometimes cuts to the core of human feeling and sometimes has an audience cringing at its achingly whimsical pretensions.”
Thelma Adams of AARP for Grownups also gives A Big Bold Beautiful Journey a “fresh” review on RT, but has some reservations. Adams writes, “By turns painfully whimsical and deeply moving, it’s one big beautiful mess that could have been bolder.”
Rated R, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey opens Friday in theaters nationwide.