Movie Review

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey will make cynics believe in the power of love

Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.

Photo by Matt Kennedy

Romantic movies can come in many different shapes and sizes, from cheesy straight-to-streaming throwaway trifles to grand, sweeping Oscar-worthy dramas. And because there have been so many romances/rom-coms made, it becomes increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd and depict a relationship that doesn’t feel the same as all of those that came before.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey does just that by emulating films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and It’s a Wonderful Life. David (Colin Farrell) is thrust into an unexpected adventure when he rents a car from a strange company called, simply, The Car Rental Company, to travel to a friend’s wedding. Once there, he is introduced to Sarah (Margot Robbie), with whom he has an instant-if-tenuous connection, with both living in the same city. A flirty-yet-honest conversation follows as they detail why two good-looking people of their ages are still single; short answer: They’re each their own worst enemy.

A seemingly sentient GPS system in their matching Saturn cars soon forces them together and convinces them to go on “a big bold beautiful journey.” Instead of some nice sightseeing, the two are taken to a series of doors found in various peculiar locations, most of which lead to memories from their past. The universe seems to want them to be together, but neither of them can get out of their own way.

Directed by Kogonada and written by Seth Reiss, the film is designed to be an arrow aimed directly at the hearts of cynics. And while there are sure to be those disaffected by its charms, it does everything a great romantic movie should. The two lead characters have each spent years sabotaging other relationships, something that convinces them - and the audience - that this unusual set of circumstances is exactly the antidote to their romantic troubles.

But the scenes from their respective pasts that they visit are about more than just trying to figure out what went wrong with past boyfriends/girlfriends. They are an exploration into the people and events that shaped their lives, and also a way to provide exposition to the audience in a way that seems natural despite the unnatural settings. Many romantic films have dialogue that feels stilted, but the upfront nature of both characters makes them come off as authentic.

Kogonada and Reiss also treat the film less seriously than you might expect. The film features a number of comedic moments and characters, starting with car rental employees played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kevin Kline. Their strange, funny, and profane banter sets the tone for what to expect from the film as a whole. David and Sarah are fully aware of the off-the-wall nature of the journey they’re on, and this knowledge keeps the film from tipping too much in the art film direction.

While it takes a bit of suspension of disbelief to think that people who look like Farrell and Robbie would still be hunting for a partner, each of the Oscar-nominated actors has the chops to sell even an idea as far-fetched as that. They also, more importantly, have great chemistry together, setting up each stage of the romance in almost the perfect way. Waller-Bridge, Kline, Hamish Linklater, and Lily Rabe also do well in key supporting parts.

For those willing to give themselves over to a slightly bizarre romance, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a film that hits all the right marks. Effective romances are in short supply in recent years, and one that works as well as this should be embraced despite its odd trappings.

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A Big Bold Beautiful Journey opens in theaters on September 19.

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Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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