Ben O'Shea: A Long Title For A Film That Only Goes for 109 Minutes

Ben O’Shea asked the big question - is Margot Robbie a good actor? He joined Lisa and Russell in the studio to review A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, starring Robbie and Colin Farrell as two strangers who meet at a wedding and travel back through time to revisit their most pivotal moments. But does the film make you think enough? And what score did Ben give it?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Great per flick with Ben. Ben takes it for the tea.
Sometimes sometimes it's a good experience, sometimes not so good. Yeah,
well this time, this time pretty good, pretty good. It's
a big, bold, beautiful journey. A long title for a
film that only goes for one hundred and nine minutes.

(00:21):
Loves a lot of title Colin Farrell and our very
own Margot Robbie. Can I give you a controversial take? Yeah,
you know, I love Margot. Don't get me wrong. I
love Margot. I think she's fantastic. She's a great cultural
export for Australia and also a powerhouse behind the camera
as well. She's amazing. Having said that, having said that,
I'm not sure she's necessarily an amazing actor. I think

(00:42):
she's great. I think she's a good actor to me.
To me, she's like she's like Brad Pitt. You love
to watch their movies and you try and convince yourself
that they're serious actors. But then you know, maybe in
the back of your mind there's this nagging suspicion that
maybe they're actually not really the best movie stars, the
movie stars more than actors. Yeah, not. Darryl Daniel de
Lewis not Daniel dar he's an actor and actually's a brand.

(01:06):
Really yeah, and in a movie like this, which is
high concept, I'm just not sure that Margot Robbie is
the perfect person for this sort of movie. Colin Farrell,
on the other hand, I think is fantastic. It's a
wonderful He's a great actor, and you see him in
movies like The Lobster, which also was a high concept film.
It's not so suited. Odd is the perfect word. He

(01:26):
is odd himself said, And so I don't know if
you saw another film with Colin Farrell that was also
a bit odd, after Yang, which was where he was
the sort of the father and his family and the
daughter's having some problems. So they buy the door a
techno sapien, sort of an artificial human, and it's sort
of an it's very art support peak art house, a

(01:47):
support robot. The robot malfunctions and then it goes from there.
So that was by this American Korean director, Cogerada, and
he is the director of a big, bold, beautiful Journey.
So he's reunited with Colin Farrell. He knows that he
can do the quirky high concepts, the conceptual stuff, the

(02:07):
difference is that film was written by Cogonata, who is
a real art house guy. He didn't write this one.
This one is written by the dude who wrote the
Menu that with rape Vines, who is a chefs out.
So straight away you've got a couple of really interesting
things about this movie. But and it's kind of a
bit like a poor man's Charlie Kaufman film. So we're

(02:28):
talking Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind adaptation being John Malkovich,
those films where they're built around a concept that you
either have to be brilliant. You either have they're brilliant.
This one's maybe not as good, but it relies on
you have to get on board with the premise right
and if you can't, you're going to struggle. And in
this case, two strangers meet at a wedding and then

(02:49):
they go on this sort of mystical journey traveling sort
of through the countryside in this rental car that has
a sort of a supernatural GPS that tells them in
twenty nine miles turned left, and then they end up
in this paddock where there's a doorway just sitting there
in the pad the middle of the paddock. And they
walk through the doorway and end up at a moment
in one or the other person's past, a critical moment,

(03:11):
so whether it was in Colin Farrell's case, they go
back to his high school when he was performing in
a musical, which is a big moment where he said
to the girl that he loved, that he had feelings
for and she knocked him back and then he cried
his eyes out. And in the case of Margot, Robbie
is going to the hospital on the day where her
mom died, so stuff like that. So they kind of
fall in love while they get to know each other

(03:32):
through their biggest magital from their past, which you know,
as a concept I don't mind it, but it is
very conceptual, and some bits work better than others, you know.
It kind of it kind of finds this sort of
lands in this awkward ground between some bits of realism
some bits of fantasy. It's sometimes a bit awkward putting
the two pieces together. But in saying that Margot Robbie

(03:56):
is so likable, you know, it's just hard not to
warm to her on the screen and on Farrell is
legitimately excellent in this movie. He is the he's the
person that really elevates it. There's nobody else really in
the film. Phoebe waller Bridge is and the great Kevin
Klein are the two widowers running the car rental agency. Well,

(04:17):
I hate to think a lot. It sounds like I
might have to think about this. Probably the issue with
this film is it doesn't make you think enough. So
it's it's high concept but ultimately probably a little bit superficial.
That you know, if you found films like Being John
Malkovich frustratingly confusing, this is the sort of an entry level,

(04:38):
entry level version, which I think there's something to be
said for that, and and the chemistry of the lead
character lead actors is great. It just maybe, just maybe
doesn't say very much ultimately. How many how has Colin
Farrell never won an Oscar's? I know I don't think
he has. Are you giving it? I'm going to give
it three? Really solid, really solid And if you're looking

(05:00):
for something to do for a date night, go along
worth worth one hundred and nine minutes of your time. Yeah,
I reckon. Could it could have been fit, could have
been could have been twenty minutes, It could have been
twenty minutes shorter. They got to cut out one or
two of the doors I reckon, but that's yeah, yeah,
classic ninety minutes, ninety minute Doors ninety minute film would
have been brilliant medium popcorn. All right, thank you, thank you.

(05:21):
We'll send you to the movies again to pick something
else for us.