A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (M) – 109 minutes

An unconvincing fantasy, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey pairs two box office drawcards – Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell – who play a reluctant couple.

They play Sarah and David. They meet at a mutual friend’s wedding, after which fate intervenes.

Both are afraid of commitment, of hurting the other, as they have done in previous relationships.

Then, each of them hires a car from the same rental company, which is a bizarre exercise in and of itself.

The firm only has outdated vehicles and both are prevailed upon to pay extra for GPS tracking, even though David makes it clear that he doesn’t need it.

And, then, when in their cars, the vehicles take on a life of their own, asking the drivers whether they would like to take a big, bold, beautiful journey.

After Sarah’s vehicle breaks down, she joins David and the pair is instructed to follow specific routes until they are told to stop.

Inevitably, that is in the middle of nowhere, starting with the bush, where they spot the first of a series of doors, first up a red number.

One after another, they walk through the door, after which they are immediately transported to a snapshot of their lives.

I speak of relationships they have had with their parents, teachers, friends and lovers, which they get to relive parts of.

Both have regrets, reservations and fears that are played out. For instance, she is a serial cheater and, of course, the question is why?

As much as I am usually a sucker for romance, I am afraid that something just felt off here, from the get go.

First up, I simply couldn’t bring myself to dismiss the implausibility of everything I was seeing.

Not even the gorgeous Margot Robbie smiling and batting her eyelids could win me over.

And, as chapter after chapter, played out, the movie felt stretched, even though it only has a running time of 109 minutes.

That’s because after a while I didn’t seem to care all that much. That had everything to do with the script by Seth Reiss (The Menu).

Of course, the ending was inevitable, so that wasn’t the issue. Rather, it was in the storytelling and the direction by Kogonada (After Yang).

I am afraid I wasn’t all that invested in the journey.

I am not saying that Robbie and Farrell didn’t try hard to make it work. They did, but when the verbiage falls short, not even fine actors can rescue it, as was the case here.

The movie is quirky.

That is evident when car rental company staff, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kevin Kline, have a strange exchange with David near the beginning of the film.

Like much of the subsequent narrative, that felt try hard, even if at that point I was prepared to go along for the ride, if you pardon the pun.

However, I quickly reached the conclusion that I wasn’t buying what the filmmakers were selling and when that connection is lost, it is all downhill from there.

Rated M, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey scores a 5 out of 10.