September 20, 2025 4 min to read

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

Review

Review: This is a movie that I have such conflicting opinions on. Back last October I was able to see this movie at a pre-screener. My wife and I had never heard of the movie before seeing it, and we really had no expectations about its quality before going in. Even in the pre-screener, I was very surprised how much I enjoyed the movie. It was a unique, thoughtful, and a carefully written romance that brought two people together that brought 2 people together. Of course, this version of the movie was incomplete, not having a score/soundtrack, having very limited editing, having scenes that were probably longer than they should have been, and being just a little rough around the edges. Despite this, I loved the story being told, along with the acting done by Margot Robbie and Colin Ferrel. They perfectly played two very flawed people who end up diving deep into each other’s traumatic and regretful pasts, finding the beauty of each other despite each other’s flaws.

Putting the incomplete aspects of this initial screening aside, it was some of the rough edges that didn’t make the initial version as good as it could have been. The beginning was extremely confusing, there was too much forced humor throughout the film, and there were certain things that were said throughout the film that made you anticipate the ending to be a certain way. These parts of the movie were brought up during a focus group that we were a part of after the showing. After we, and others, were able to bring up some of these issues, we were very optimistic about how good the ending edit would turn out

While what I said sounds mainly positive, I actually don’t think the final version was as good as I was hoping it would be. As for what they really did well, they absolutely cleaned up the beginning of the movie and ending of the movie, cleaned up the editing (which was guaranteed to happen), and they added in some minimal, yet beautiful, visual effects. After fixing the main issues of the movie, it should have been a simple slam dunk for a great movie, but that wasn’t the case.

To start off, I know that part of that disappointment is already knowing what is going to happen, having certain very emotional and personal moments “spoiled.” I was hoping this wouldn’t be the case, but it is what it is. As for another aspect of the movie that should have been an easy layup was the movie. The pre-screener had very generic music put into the scenes just to make sure there was some musing going on throughout. What they added in as the replacement was not what I would have expected it would or should have been. Even after talking about the music specifically with my wife, they missed the spot. What they added in every scene did not fit the mood and tone in any scene, and there were random pop songs that also didn’t fit in. The music throughout is mainly simple piano pieces, which are good on their own, but what it really needed was a full orchestra to swell and rise all throughout to bring out the deep emotions and themes being explored through the movie.

On top of the extreme miss with the music, there were significantly more cuts to various scenes that were originally in the pre-screener. I was expecting cuts and re-edits to be made throughout the film, but they took out much more than they should have. As most of the movie is the process of going through doors to relive the past of each of the characters, it’s important to make sure there is enough time at each of the times being revisited. Each of the cuts made each of these scenes shorter, feeling significantly less impactful, less important, and less emotional. These edits had the characters cruising and rushing through each of the pasts, and with this rushing it makes it so several visits to the pasts were a waste of time rather than being impactful. This was significantly disappointing to me because the extended versions of these scenes really brought out the intentionality and the purpose of all of the scenes, allowing the relationship and connection between the characters to truly be developed and to flourish. With the relationship being the main development and purpose of the movie, cutting and shortening these scenes only negatively impacted the overall story and emotionality of the film.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed at the final product, but I still have a lot of love for the movie. Being able to see the initial product really gave me a lot of love for the story they were trying to tell, but they screwed it up a bit in the editing room. Even after making all of the great and necessary changes to the beginning and the end, scenes were cut too short, and the music did not provide any necessary elevation to any scene. I would still say I enjoyed the movie enough, especially the 2nd half, but I wish the magic the pre-screener had could have been present in the final product.

Rating: 3/5 (the final product is more of a 2.5/5, but my bias on enjoying the pre-screener is definitely coming through)