Robbie and Farrell bring chemistry to time-traveling love story

Some doors open onto the past, others give access to the future, CE Report quotes ANSA.

In A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, directed by Kogonada, produced by Sony Pictures, and set for release on October 2 with Eagle Pictures, it is Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell—together on screen for the first time—who walk through them.

She arrives fresh from the worldwide success of Barbie (and from motherhood, with her first baby in the arms of assistants in the corridors of the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, where she’s busy with interviews). He comes from the intense role of Batman’s sworn enemy in The Penguin, which earned him a Golden Globe and a SAG Award.

“It’s a very human story, full of sensitivity,” Farrell tells.

“I’d call it a luminous film, full of hope and magic,” Robbie agrees.

Sarah and David, two single forty-somethings scarred by love, meet by chance at a friend’s wedding in a country villa. A mysterious GPS forces them to take the journey back to the city together—but it isn’t linear: the navigator’s voice leads them to remote, scenic places where doors open onto the most significant moments of their lives: breakups, births, losses, and even small traumas from high school. David relives his awkward school musical performance of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Sarah tries to heal her wound by singing with him.

“There’s nothing overly dramatic: sure, walking through a door and ending up in your past is extraordinary, but here it isn’t heavy-handed. There are no shouting matches or theatrics. Kogonada is a tender filmmaker, drawn to pain, sadness, loss, regret… but he approaches them gently and introspectively,” says Farrell.

Un viaggio straordinario begins like a classic rom-com but soon shifts into a kind of magical realism, where everyday situations are warped by the absurd, then slips into introspection as the two characters must decide whether to open the final door—the one leading to a possible future together.

“There’s a key line in the film,” reflects Robbie: ‘Sometimes we must perform in order to find the truth.’ It’s spoken by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who makes a hilarious cameo as a rental car clerk handing out old cars with the strange GPS.

Revisiting childhood or youth from a distance puts the characters in touch with truths they had never grasped. The same happens in our work: when we play roles far from who we are, we still end up discovering deep parts of ourselves.

The artifice helps uncover truth in some situations: sometimes beautiful and simple, other times profound. This film works on different levels: lighthearted, like when we laugh in the car or run through high school corridors, and heavier, when we face the worst memories.”

Sarah and David are forced to bare themselves by this sort of Big Brother voice coming from the car dashboard, working almost like a dating app.

“But on set we laughed more than we cried, that’s for sure,” the actors promise, finishing each other’s thoughts.

Their chemistry began during rehearsals:

“We’d take little car trips around Los Angeles. I drove my car, Kogonada sat in the backseat, Margot was in the front, and we drove around reading the script. It was fun, very free, very spontaneous.”

Will we see them in a musical together?

Robbie shuts it down: “Not a chance! I can’t sing. In Barbie I did it a little, and badly. Most of us only have one talent: Colin’s the exception. He does everything well!”