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REVIEW: A Big Bold Beautiful Journey -- Showing Shadow Work, and Why it’s Worth Doing

 

By The Treasure-Sharer

 

It wasn't until my man (the Adventurer) told me that I should consider reviewing one of the films that we had recently watched that I not only realized that the A Big Bold Beautiful Journey movie starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell was the one that I felt most drawn to review (see a photo of the movie poster to the side, taken from the IMBD page), but that it was also necessary and important for me to analyze and break down the value of this film, to the many who wouldn't understand it otherwise.

 

This became apparent to me after watching a bunch of A Big Bold Beautiful Journey reviews on YouTube that missed the point of what the movie was really about and meant to do, that told viewers to skip it.

 

The reason I gave my man for why I had chosen that film in particular to review was that it portrayed shadow work in a movie, which I had never seen done before.

 

My man and I have undertaken shadow work before, and have been transformed by it, but we did so without even having a name for it, since it was just part of the internal work that my man had done on himself, and helped me set out to do on myself. Later, we helped each other address other shadows that plagued us, as we were able to lend new perspectives to our situations, while showing compassion for each others' situations, which is why we can identify what is happening in the movie, and break it down for you.

 

Since shadow work is not something that a lot of people are aware of, and is not typically covered in mainstream and popular media, it's nice to see it make it into movie theatres, in a big-budget film, with big-name actors like Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie, so that more people can hopefully be inspired by it to want to undertake similiar big bold beautiful journeys of their own.

 

But it's also not surprising to see that, while many movie-goers seem to like it, most critics have been saying bad things about it, probably to keep people from seeing it, and keep people from getting the messages that it is meant to deliver.

 

After having several discussions about A Big Bold Beautiful Journey with my man while working on this review, we both agree that, in fact, the film has a lot to offer anyone who watches it, as long as they know and understand what they are being enabled to witness, and its purpose -- which we both agree is to capture the normally-private and hidden process of shadow work on-screen, so that people can experience it up close, and understand better why it's something that needs to be done, why and how it's undertaken, and how rewarding it can feel to free oneself of the dark thoughts and beliefs that our shadows shroud our lives with, so that, in facing and understanding them, we can start to hope, and feel worthy of more and better, again.

 

The film does a great job of showing how a few key moments and resulting mindsets left unaddressed and locked away in the shadows of our minds can leave even those who look blessed to the outside observer feeling cursed, and resigned to repeat the same painful patterns that they believe they will never be able to escape, again and again, until they find the courage to face the situations that created their seemingly hopeless fates together, so that they can better understand them, and work through the issues they created, and finally realize that they don't have to stay stuck in their old harmful beliefs and patterns, and can choose to rise above them, and build toward something different and better for themselves, together. 

 

My man and I are familiar with the process of shadow work depicted in the movie because we have undertaken similar processes ourselves, where we have shared things about ourselves with each other that we haven't shared with anyone else, and have been able to identify the roots of our shadows with each other, and help reframe them for each other so that we have been able to heal and grow with our new understandings. While we know that we still have a lot of shadow work ahead of us, as we all have many shadows that we need to work through, and the journey doesn't end after just one shadow is addressed, our experience has allowed us to relate to the movie, and use our own experience to help you see what the film is showing, if you haven't had similar moments of deep sharing, reflection, and healing with a partner, yourself. 

 

If you haven't yet seen, or want a refresher of, the trailers for A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, then you can click the links that follow to watch the short verson of the official trailer, and the longer version of the official trailer, taken from the A Big Bold Beautiful Journey IMBD page. 

 

See an image taken from the film's IMBD page below, of Sarah and David together watching a sunset on a lighthouse that David had earlier visited on his own -- the first place that the magic doorways in the movie take them to visit. I see this scene as containing metaphors for multiple things: with them each being lighthouses for each other, that will guide them through and allow them to navigate their shadows safely, and with them witnessing the beauty of a sunset (lightness before giving way to darkness, but also carrying the promise of a new day and new sunrise that will follow -- like how the dark things that they will come to uncover about themselves bring them together, so that they can understand each other, and bring new understanding to one another; help each other find their old selves before the hurt they endured; and look forward to brighter days ahead together) -- but with the recognition that they wouldn't have been able to embark on such a journey together, if they hadn't first had to endure, as my man says, "different but similar" traumas that allowed them to relate to each other, and made them the perfect partners for each other, that allowed them to be lighthouses for each other in the first place. 

 

 

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**SPOILER ALERT**

 

I have to warn that this review will contain major spoilers, as they are needed to explain parts of the film, and how and why they are necessary.

 

If you prefer, you may choose to watch the film first, and then read this Big Bold Beautiful Journey review afterward, and watch the film again, if you don't like having parts of a movie revealed to you ahead of time.

 

We make references to different parts of the movie throughout this review, so it's impossible to indicate all of them without interrupting the flow of the review, so we've decided just to warn you about them ahead of time, here.

 

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Wrong Expectations Ruining the Big Bold Beautiful Journey

 

Now, I'll admit that even I was underwhelmed by the movie after seeing it, having expected something bright, light-hearted, and positive, with the way that its trailers depicted it, but I actually understood why everything in the film had happened the way that it did, and why, and felt injustice at the critiques of the movie's writer, who so many other reviewers appeared to blame for making something mediocre, that could have been so much better.

 

I think that most viewers come into A Big Bold Beautiful Journey expecting an escape from the real world, into a colorful, bright, fantastical romantic adventure that allows them to shut off their brains, sit back, and enjoy the ride. See the image above, of Sarah and David laughing and talking during their car ride.

 

Viewers expect to laugh, feel good, and go back to their own mundane lives afterwards, wishing that they could be as lucky as the movie characters to get to experience such happy, clean-cut, fairy-tale endings, while they can only settle for what they have, but can tell themselves that stuff like that only happens in the movies, and so don't have apply any of what they saw to themselves and their lives.

 

They want typical conflicts between bad guys and good guys. They want clear protagonists with pure hearts and squeaky-clean pasts that they can root on, and clear external enemies and threats that they can see be slain.

 

Superficial, "likeable" characters; predictable "feel-good" storylines; and definitively happy endings are what we think we will get, from watching the trailers for A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, but what we actually experience is the opposite. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey requires us to use our brains, to feel uncomfortable, to feel mixed feelings about the characters and whether they even deserve to experience anything different, to travel to places we wouldn't have chosen to go back to in our own lives, and have cruel behaviors recognized for what they are -- recognized as ugliness.

 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a film where art reflects life, and people's awkwardness and doubt are real, rather than cute, where the characters have brains and are able to self-reflect, rather than having to go through an entire movie to finally learn something.

 

Most characters in romances are portrayed as staying good and pure, despite all the hardships that they had to endure, while characters in this film are the opposite, and fell into bad, cruel behaviors because of what they went through -- hurting others to avoid being hurt again, themselves.

 

The realism portrayed in what is marketed as a fantasy film can be a lot, and even too much, for some viewers to handle -- especially those who have been trained to shut off their brains, and want "more of the same" mindless and feel-good films, and then be presented with something so different -- that forces them to follow the characters through internal journeys so uncomfortable that they have the characters themselves trying to back out of them every other minute.

 

The indecisiveness of the leads reflects the internal battles raging on inside of them, where, on the one hand, they want to take a chance on better outcomes and each other, but, on the other hand, they don't trust themselves not to ruin things, or each other to not hurt one another. It very accurately depicts how those who have experienced truly traumatic moments go through life -- unable to let go of their past hurts, or trust others not to hurt them in the same way, and thus unable to experience life fully, since they're too afraid to fully put themselves out there (unable to love and be loved) and are thus living a very cold, empty existence. See the image below of Sarah showing hesitation in her interactions with David, taken from the IMBD page.

 

 

The darkness of the dark sides of the characters, and the doors that take the characters and the film viewers to uncomfortable, awkward, painful moments, rather than to breathtakingly beautiful experiences that they'd love to share with their love, can all come as a shock to viewers. Rather than being taken to places where they can laugh, viewers are taken to the moments that made the characters cry, and come to hate themselves. But it's precisely these moments that couples should know and understand about each other, to truly understand each other, and understand if they really want to be with each other.

 

Those who run aren't really for us, while those who stay and not only try to understand us, but also help us better understand the situation from a helpful lens that helps us heal, are the keepers.

 

Those who are willing to witness us in our most messed-up states, and not only stay, but want to help us heal and move forward, are what the movie shows -- a relationship developing between two people who know that they're messed up, and don't try to hide it or pretend with one another, is what we are presented with.

 

And those who act and present fake perfect selves in their relationships because they think that no one will accept their flawed selves, if they show them, won't understand it.

 

If you expect another fake fantasy that upholds illusion, with stock characters and rehashed story lines that you strive to achieve for your own life (or at least pretend to have achieved), then the realities depicted in the film may be too disruptive and disorienting for you to handle, which is why I believe that it’s important to prepare yourself for what A Big Bold Beautiful Journey actually delivers, and actually sets out to do, before watching it. If you can't accept the unpredictable ways that real love can operate (where age doesn't necessarily stop attraction, and shouldn't stop soulmates from getting together; where characters can continue to vacillate between self-stopping doubt and "let's go for it anyway" courage, and can change their minds a million times before being fully willing to commit; where characters can't be fully sure of anything, but are finally willing to give themselves another chance to try -- not with someone who's already figured everything out and checks all the "right" boxes as approved-partner material, but who's willing to be there for and with them while they heal and grow), then you need to widen your perception and conception of love, to understand this film.

 

In fact, the fake "social-media-profile-perfect" relationships that people have come to try to emulate nowadays, at least online, are often one of the biggest things that stand in the way of people being willing or ready to undergo shadow work in the first place, and keep them from experiencing breakthroughs in their self-awareness that could otherwise transform them for the better -- keeping them too busy looking at other couples (and wasting their time trying to keep up with them), to focus on themselves, and understanding themselves, so that they can figure out what they actually want and need in a partner, and be open to finding someone who they can be vulnerable and themselves with, who is willing to help them work through any issues they might have, and grow with them.

 

 

A Movie With a Mission

 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a movie with a mission, that isn't subtle about showing it. Some people can be off-put by its obviousness, but I think that it's actually necessary for it to deliver the messages and the lessons that it sets out to share and impart, and I think that if you take it like the tales told in children's story books, where the story is told to you, rather than leaving things open to interpretation, so that you don't miss any of the important insights that it's meant to convey, then you will see that the movie actually does what it does very well.

 

I think that A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a film that not everyone will like or "get," but that anyone who approaches the movie with an open mind and the correct mindset can get a lot out of it.

 

In this review, I hope to explain how to view the film in ways that will help you get the most out of it, and appreciate what it does, and the significant subjects it tackles, to help you understand how you can deal with similar traumas from your past and life.

 

In fact, if you rewatch the official movie trailers, you'll see that they tell you what they're doing right in the trailers, but that it'll go right over your head, if you don't understand it. The words that the short movie trailer (see here: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3122710553/?ref_=tt_vids_vi_1) shows are "Discover a world where every door unlocks a memory. Relive your past. Change your future." The trailer is showing us what the movie is showing us -- that there are memories that we have each locked away behind doors, that need to be opened so that we can relive what we have locked away, so that we can change our futures.

 

As well, David's message is important, that, "No matter who you are in your life, we just need someone to share it with." It encapsulates how vital it is to have people that we CAN share these kinds of experiences with, who can accompany us on our journeys with compassion, caring, and understanding, as opposed to people who will judge us for our shadows, and cause us to contract further into the bad behaviors we engage in that have resulted from them.

 

If you look at the tagline in the A Big Bold Beautiful Journey promo poster to the side ("Relive your past. Change your future."), you can see that the film is encouraging you to do as David and Sarah are doing, and relive YOUR past, and change YOUR future.

 

Actually, the memories and places that the various doors in the film lead to give a taste of the different ways that one can relive one's past, showing that it's not just the most obvious moments like heart-crushing rejection from one's crush, but might even involve discovering things that one might not have been able to comprehend prior to reliving the most obviously-defining moments, such as the letting go of one's beliefs that one felt about such an event allowing them to understand their situation from another key person's eyes -- the way that David was able to see the reason why his parents always referred to him as "special," and was even able to tell himself that he was special, after realizing that the fact that his old crush didn't find him special didn't take away from that.

 

 

Showing Shadow Work

 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey shows us the processes of shadow work undertaken by its two leads, and how, though it involves returning to and re-examining the darkest, ugliest parts of themselves and moments of their lives, that they had buried away because of the pain and shame that the memories made them feel, that it could actually be bold and beautiful to face them with someone who would let them see their situations from gentler, kinder, more understanding eyes, so that they might be healed and open to healing.

 

See below for an image of Sarah and David exploring a museum in the shadows, with a flashlight, taken from the movie's IMBD page -- a perfect metaphor for how they are exploring the memories they have hidden in the shadows of their minds, illuminating and sharing some of those of particular significance with one another, so that they can re-examine them together.

 

 

 

 

The title of the movie, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, tells us how we should view the journey -- as something big and important, that requires strength, courage, and boldness to undertake, that is beautiful in the healing and possibilities that it opens up and creates: to stop carrying your past as shadows dragging you down, and, instead, transforming your traumas into opportunities for growth and improvement, to approach the rest of your life with hope and openness.

 

It shows how difficult it is to start the process, and say "yes" to going back to the painful moments that caused us to close ourselves off, and feel unworthy of better situations than the ones that we have settled on and resigned ourselves to, but how rewarding and worthwhile it is to do so.

 

We have been conditioned to expect movies to follow a certain script these days -- one that allows us to feel "smart," by leaving things open to interpretation, so that we can fill in the details with whatever opinions we want, that fit the narratives we tell ourselves, and lifestyles we choose for ourselves, while A Big Bold Beautiful Journey doesn't allow for that. The only possibilities and possible interpretations that it leaves open and up in the air are what lays in store for the main characters David and Sarah at the end of the film, where they remain open to whatever the future holds, now that they have worked through their emotional baggage, and are ready to approach life with a "clean slate," as my man says.

 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey quite brilliantly uses the elements of fantasy to exhibit and explore things that we wouldn't otherwise be able to see, though they exist invisibly inside us, and influence our external actions, inaction, and interactions.

 

And, as I mentioned, even the official trailers tell you exactly what you should expect, but if you don't get it, you'll miss it. 

 

 

Weird Car Rental Agency and Chatty GPS System

 

The movie uses an eccentric car rental agency (where David later asks if they are a soulmate-matching service), to explain the synchronicities in the movie that mirror those that happen in real life, in relation to bringing us into the path of the people who we are meant to be with -- that feel magical and fantastical in how they create encounters again and again, in ways that are so perfectly orchestrated that they clearly happened by design, rather than by mere coincidence. I know that I have experienced many such synchronicities in meeting my man, and us becoming major parts in each other's lives, and how it all might be viewed as impossible to the outside observer, if one didn't understand and embrace how synchronicities work.

 

 

The intelligent GPS (see a movie still of one of them, above) also allows us to see what the characters are really thinking and feeling, as they are willing to show weaknesses to AI that they're still too scared to fully express to real people. It thus gives us glimpses into how big their frustrations, despair, and desperation really are, in living with their shadows for so long, and having them prevent them from exploring a relationship with someone who they might really want to be with.

 

Their GPSs also force them to continue their big bold beautiful journey of shadow work, even when their fear causes them to hesitate, or try to run away again.

 

 

Magic Doors

 

Magic doors that lead the characters to relive defining moments in their lives, or have encounters that they were never able to actually experience, but may have wanted or needed to, allow the characters and viewers to be in the moment, and really understand what was going on in the characters' heads and hearts during those moments that made these moments so important to them, and why these critical points in shaping their lives have led them to engage in the seemingly cold and callous ways that they do in their present lives -- protective mechanisms that they have developed to prevent them from experiencing the same hurts that they had to endure, that they never want to have to go through again.

 

The doorways allow us to experience the characters' inner journeys with them -- to live memories that they had buried away within them, like they had when they experienced them; to be there as they dictate how they feel as they feel it while re-experiencing the moments, to allow them to ask their unspoken questions that they hadn't been able to ask in the past; to allow them to express their deep-seated guilt, doubts, and fears bravely and fully; and to give their wounded inner child the chance to receive the understanding they need to let go of the shadows, so that they can make room for the light and love that they had been unable to accept, until they allowed access to the parts now vacated by their shadows.

 

The movie shows us the entire process of their shadow work -- from the extreme regret and unhappiness they feel from not going for what they actually want finally being too much for them to take (causing them to say yes to the big bold beautiful journey offered by their GPSs); to their extreme hesitation at going forward, despite having already said yes; to their discomfort, awkwardness, and pain at facing their most crushing moments; to their attempts to run and avoid going deeper; to the support, understanding, and motivation they provide for each other; to their ability to finally work through their shadows, to finally be open to the possibility of light and love and real happiness, once they choose to take control, rather than let their shadows control and consume them.

 

 

Shadow Work with a Soulmate

 

To give you a better understanding of the shadow work being portrayed in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, and to answer your question "What is shadow work?", if you are unfamiliar with it and were wondering, I searched "Shadow work in a soulmate relationship," and thought that Google AI did a pretty good job of summing up some key points about it, and so have copied and pasted what it had to say about it here.

 

It said that "Shadow work in a soulmate relationship involves the process of confronting, accepting, and integrating the parts of oneself that have been denied, rejected, or suppressed, rather than projecting these unconscious traits onto a partner. This work is essential because unhealed wounds and patterns often cause individuals to attract partners from their wounds rather than their worth, leading to dynamics where they settle for less than they deserve or push away genuine love due to a lack of inner safety. 

 

Key aspects of this integration include:

 

Preventing Projection: Without shadow work, individuals unconsciously project their own disowned emotions, fears, and behavioral blind spots onto their soulmate, creating distorted lenses through which they see and interact with their partner. 

 

Building Inner Wholeness: Shadow work shifts the dynamic from seeking a soulmate to "complete" you to recognizing that soulmate love expands you because you are already whole; it roots you in the knowing that you are worthy of being loved fully. 

 

Healing Attachment Wounds: It addresses deep-seated issues like abandonment fears or people-pleasing, allowing individuals to regulate their responses in love rather than reacting out of childhood trauma or insecurity. 

 

Creating Authentic Intimacy: By reclaiming pieces of the self thought to be unlovable, individuals build the emotional maturity required for real intimacy, ensuring they can receive love without rejecting or questioning it. 

 

While soulmates are often described as partners who meet you in your healing with safety and reciprocity, shadow work is the prerequisite to fully receiving this love; without it, individuals may unconsciously recreate the same painful patterns even within a healthy relationship."

 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey in a way gives a blue print on how to do it, for anyone who wants to know "how do I shadow work?", and wants an example that they can see, rather than just read or hear about.

 

 

Making the Unconscious Conscious

 

As Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung stated in his book Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, "The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must [unavoidably] act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves."

 

Google AI did a good job of breaking down what this quote means in a way that will help you better understand what is going on in the movie, so I have copied and pasted what it had to say with regards to the quote below:

 

"The Core Meaning

The Unconscious: The quote describes what happens when a person ignores, represses, or remains unaware of their own inner conflicts and dualities.

Manifestation as Fate: Because these inner tensions demand resolution, they are 'projected' outward. The individual inadvertently acts out the conflict or perceives it as something happening to them.

Lack of Agency: When the origin of the conflict remains hidden within the psyche, it feels like an unavoidable destiny rather than a behavioral pattern.

Integration and Awareness

Jungian psychology emphasizes that the path to wholeness involves integrating the unconscious -- often referred to as the 'Shadow'. By bringing these hidden dynamics into conscious awareness, individuals can:

 

-Stop repeating destructive behavioral cycles.

-Recognize their role in external conflicts.

-Reclaim personal agency over their 'fate'." 

 

See a screenshot of Google AI's returned response below, since it tends to vary every time you make an inquiry:

 

 

As my man told me long ago, it is important to be the captain of your own ship, and not let your subconscious control you, by making your conscious mind in charge, and putting it in the driver's seat.

 

But it is impossible for your conscious mind to take control of things that it is unaware of, that you have hidden from it, which is why it's so important to do the work that it takes to uncover the things that are hidden in your unconscious, so that you can be made aware of them, and take control of them, rather than letting them control you.

 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey demonstrates how the unresolved issues of David and Sarah's pasts caused them to resign themselves to living miserable lives, feeling fated to continue to experience the same patterns that they kept feeling like they had to pursue -- dating casually, sleeping around, and cheating for Sarah, and pursuing and bailing after successful conquest for David.

 

It was only when they faced the shadows that made them feel unworthy of experiencing anything else, and were able to reach the love that let them see that they had the power to take control and create better outcomes for themselves, that they were able to receive love from each other without rejecting or questioning it, now feeling okay with pursuing it.

 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey shows us the beauty of facing reality: facing dark, ugly moments in our pasts and about ourselves that we normally hide from others, and even bury deep within ourselves -- so that we can actively work through them, understand them, and integrate them, so that we can move forward, rather than simply bearing them silently in our unconscious, where they continue to affect us in ways that we can't control.

 

David and Sarah are shown to have already begun the process of shadow work at the start of the movie, in that they are aware of and admit to having shadows. They already know that they are messed up, and that their behaviors are destructive, and it's their awareness of how messed up they are inside, and how badly they behave, that cause them to feel unworthy of pursuing anything better, and thus rejecting the opportunity to go for someone they are truly attracted to (namely, each other).


The Role of Soulmates

 

Soulmates are people who are meant to disrupt our lives in ways that cause rapid growth. They are able to understand us, and attract and are attracted to us, because they are so much like us in intangible ways that others might not understand -- and are able to meet us where we are in life. They might leave or stick around, but will have a transformational, life-changing effect on us, as they were meant to shake us into higher versions of ourselves. But that's only if we want to take control of our lives, and want more for them and ourselves, rather than settling for being a NPC (non-player character) that resigns themselves to the lives and situations that they are dealt with, who will even choose to defend the system, and criticize anyone who falls out of line with it. See the image above for an artistic representation of soulmates. 

The movie makes it obvious that David and Sarah are meant to be together, and forces them into situations where they meet and have to stay together, no matter how they try to run away from each other, and the things that they have to face in order for them to be with one another.

 

In fact, this happens in real life also, with God creating opportunities for life-changing moments -- but it is up to us to say yes to them, though this may entail working through the pain of healing past hurts, to be able to fully embrace what lies ahead, with a whole heart.

 

Many may never choose to face their shadows, or even acknowledge that they have them in the first place. So they'll watch A Big Bold Beautiful Journey and criticize it as being a big long therapy session, despite never having even gone through therapy themselves, or taken the time to look at the parts of themselves that they don't like -- instead, preferring to say that the characters are unlikeable, and that it makes no sense that they would like each other, let alone have anyone like them.

 

Instead of viewing Sarah and David as regular people who don't know how to handle their traumas that continue to haunt them and influence their actions, they paint them as freaks and lepers -- not understanding that they are reflections of the messed-up parts of ourselves that we avoid because they make us feel unlikeable, such that we feel that we have to hide them, so that we don't have others stigmatize us for them, and thus are unable to resolve them, process them, and learn from them.

 

It is only when we allow ourselves to acknowledge these sides of ourselves, and do something about them, that we can relate to the journeys being portrayed in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, and be inspired to take similar journeys of our own, or continue to engage in lifelong shadow work, and recommend others to do so.

 

As my man told me, the two characters' messed-up states were actually what attracted them to each other in the first place, as they were vibrating on the same level, and therefore could understand and relate to each other. Having both endured traumas of their own, they were attracted to the fact that they discovered in one another a hurt soul similar to their own, and were actually more attracted to the hurt and brokenness that each was giving off from the traumas that they had endured, than to each other -- bonding through their brokenness from being messed up by their traumas. As my man explained, in working through their traumas together, and finding resolution, they were able to begin their relationship at the end of the movie on a clean slate, such that they could actually be attracted to each other, rather than to each other's shadows that mirrored their own.

 

 

The Choice of "How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying"

 

If you understand that the movie is about going through the hard work of shadow work and working on yourself to earn a better outcome for your life and relationship, you'll understand how the musical that David starred in in high school was a metaphor for the opposite -- a story of taking external shortcuts to land high positions and everything we are told to view as important in our lives. It also showed how he viewed the world before -- thinking of it as a series of steps that anyone could take to climb the ladder of life and get the girl, and succeed. He had been told that he was special and treated as special, and had snagged the lead role in the play, and couldn't handle it when life didn't operate like the script, where his being the top dog in the musical didn't win him the girl he wanted, and nothing turned out like he had expected.

 

The play shows that following the rules and script will land one success, while the movie shows otherwise, showing how David doing all the things that were supposed to land him what he wanted didn't bring him what he wanted, and he still failed to get the girl. 

 

When he and Sarah chose to finish the song together, and leave the auditorium and his biggest nightmare together, they created an alternative possibility, and were able to be liberated from following the script, and doing what was expected. This is why David was shown as throwing off the jacket of his costume, and Sarah and David were shown as running and leaping and laughing through the hallways (see a movie still of them doing so below) -- able to feel happy and carefree, and run and laugh, in a school (a place where we are taught to obey and follow, and show discipline and restraint).

 

 

That's why all the memories and scenarios in the movie that come after this magical doorway visit don't follow, or have to follow, rhyme or reason: because the rules and scripts that had been holding David and Sarah back had been overcome in that moment.

 

As my man said, if you can fix the trauma, you can fix your future -- and because they had broken the rules that bound them to the tragedy of the ways that things had played out in the past, David was released from the trauma of his rejection, and the two gained the freedom to continue to break rules in handling their other magical doorway encounters, and could now move forward and fix the future.

 

As well, as my man pointed out, this part of the movie was also key in that it made Sarah relatable to David, because she had helped heal him in that moment, showing him that she was willing to see him at his most vulnerable, and help him see his most dreaded moment in a different way, and it was partly for that reason that David was willing to overlook Sarah's sleeping around and funky behaviors, when he was later taken to her darkest moment, now motivated to help her, as she had him.

 

 

Showing the Stories Behind the Bad Behaviors

 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey also actually shows us that there can be more to the story than someone simply being a superficial hoe or heartbreaker, and that, sometimes, the most unlikeable individuals who seem the cruelest are the most broken and lost, and perpetuate destructive patterns as a result of what they have themselves experienced, and want to prevent themselves from having to go through again.

 

I think that many prefer to distance themselves from people who recognize their flaws, rather than acknowledge that it's normal to have shadows, and face their own.

 

If you are someone who prefers to live in illusion, watch fantasies and chase fantasies, and aren't open to even entertaining anything else, then A Big Bold Beautiful Journey probably isn't for you, as you'll be more likely to reject the things that it presents, rather than recognize the truths, and be inspired to explore your own dark sides to truly understand them yourself.

 

But I believe that it's worth everyone giving A Big Bold Beautiful Journey and themselves a chance, to truly move past the past, and open themselves fully to what the future holds for them. The film gives us complex characters with traumas common enough that we can relate to them (even if we can't like them), and a realistic, open-ended ending.

 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a movie that doesn't minimize the shadow work experience by romanticizing it. While the film is a romance, it doesn't make the couple journey toward each other and working through their demons easy or predictable, and doesn't give us the stock stereotypical characters and endings that we have come to expect from movies. The scenarios that David and Sarah encounter, sometimes together, and sometimes separately, have no comforting pattern to them: some are past memories made interactive; some are hypothetical scenarios; and one even places David in the body of his father, experiencing the moment as his dad talking to his past self. Some viewers might not like how random this may appear to them, but if you understand the purpose of each scene, then you'll realize that each had to happen the way that it happened, for David to understand how someone who was truly meant for him would be able to bust out the song of the musical that he was in to help him out of being humiliated, for Sarah to finally let go of the guilt that prevented her from feeling worthy of pursuing happiness and being happy, and for David to understand why his parents had called him special his whole life, and actually believe it and be able to say it to himself, when put in the same position, and more.

 

I have studied writing, and I know that no words are extraneous, no scenes are pointless, and nothing happens the way that it does without a purpose.

 

Especially with something that has clearly been approached and presented as a work of art, OF COURSE every detail matters, and everything carries and conveys meaning (and sometimes multiple meanings), and of course the movie means to do more than brainlessly entertain and brainwash viewers for a few hours, unlike typical Hollywood movies today.

 

While we might have expected the magical doors to take us to fantastical places and scenarios, like magical realms or alternate universes, actually, the things that they do take us through are good choices, because they are the scenarios that need revisiting and re-examination, through different eyes, to understand what is really going on, and they shouldn't be holding us back and forcing us to repeat destructive patterns anymore.

 

See the image below of David and Sarah about to enter one of the magical doorways.

 

 

 

Strong Stances

 

The film doesn't let you classify Sarah as a "strong woman" who sleeps around because she's for "girl power" and feminism, like the narratives that most women are pushing nowadays, to justify their sleeping around and unbelievably high body counts. She from the start acknowledges that her behavior is messed up, and we can see that even she looks down on it, such that she even sabotages getting with a man that she is attracted enough to to even propose marriage to upon meeting him, knowing and stating that she'll probably just hurt him, and so turns to a safer option, when he doesn't take her up on her offer, following the same destructive patterns that she already lays out for him that she engages in. 

 

David desperately wants to pursue her, and we can see him kicking himself for not going for it and missing out on her, but is held back by his knowing his history of hot pursuit of women, only to lose interest in them after winning them to him, such that he also now ruins potentially good things before they can even get started.

 

We can't interpret their actions or feelings about their inaction in a better light than what is portrayed, because the film doesn't leave us the room to.

 

We can't justify their bad behaviors to ourselves, like many women and men today do, because the characters can't even stand it in themselves, and feel really bad about themselves because of it.

 

And I think that this leaves people feeling uncomfortable, if they can see themselves in the character's shoes, but don't want to admit it, and don't want to feel the condemnation for the badness of their behaviors.

 

Because today's relationships are characterized by lack of feeling and real intimacy, where sleeping around is the norm, and interest is lost after the partner is won, since they were never chasing the one they really wanted, to begin with.

 

Women today love being able to celebrate, rather than be shunned for, their high body counts, and men, seeing how messed up women are (chasing guys who don't love them), despite their own real feelings for them, don't like things that cast such situations in a different light. And men are unable to see their role in creating a self-perpetuating loop, in writing off all women as hoes who don't appreciate men, and aren't worth pursuing, such that, when a man has someone who might be worth pursuing come along, he can't open himself to her.

In David's case, it was because he felt that he wasn't special or worth anything, and expected to be hurt, as he had been in the past.

 

That is one of the things that is being portrayed in this movie -- men have lost the confidence to be men and pursue women with intention, knowing that they could lose them to other men because they are not "special" enough to keep their interest.

 

But, as my man told me, one of the things that the movie is portraying is also a bit extreme, in the scenario with Sarah having such a voluntarily-high body count, and with David being willing to accept that. My man thinks that it's relative, and depends on the situation and the guy. Most guys in real life will not be okay with choosing as their life partner a woman who has slept with countless men, which is why so many women who have spent their 20s sleeping around are finding themselves alone and unable to find a man who is willing to marry them or be with them when they reach their 30s and 40s, and now want to "settle down," after their looks have left them. My man knows that there are more men who will be okay with being with a woman who has been raped by one man, than with a woman who has voluntarily had sex with hundreds of other guys. He thinks that, while the scenario portrayed in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey of David being willing to look past Sarah's hoe-ish history, and understand it and accept her anyway, is possible, with a particular type of guy, but that this would not be the norm with most guys. 
 

While my man agrees that a couple should do shadow work, and should do it together, he acknowledges that a woman with a high body count of other men she has slept with is a red line that most men are not okay with, and thinks that the example of Sarah's sleeping around shown in the movie is an extreme.

 

I actually wonder if David and Sarah's situations were purposely made to be extreme, to show how two people with such extreme histories could understand each other because of their experiences, and were perfect for undertaking their shadow work journeys with because of that -- with them both feeling that they were too horrible to be worth saving, and thus, in their desire to be with and want to save each other, and willingness to forgive each other, understand that they themselves -- no matter how hateful they felt themselves to be -- were also forgivable, and also worth saving. 

 

 

The Worth of Revisiting -- and Rethinking -- Past Moments

 

In reliving his high school musical moment with Sarah, David is able to see how he had put in so much work into chasing his high school crush who had crushed him (shown at the front right of the photo, taken from the movie's IMBD page, to the side), only to realize that some things just weren't meant to be, and that he should have just accepted it.

 

Sarah actually appreciated his gifts, and David had parents who had always believed in him and seen him as special, and he shouldn't have wasted so much of his life letting one rejection ruin his life, shatter his confidence, and cause him to question his worth so thoroughly. 

 

I think that because of this defining moment, David spent his life trying to prove to himself that he could get the girl, since he couldn't land the one he really wanted and had worked so hard for, but didn't want to keep the women once he got them, since it wasn't the girl that he was actually chasing, but the validation that he COULD get her -- heartless, pointless, and feelingless, since he hadn't been able to succeed with the woman who had actually mattered to him and counted. And so, he became addicted to the chase and validation of his efforts, but could never really feel like things had worked out for him, because what he really wanted was what he could never have, since he had already been rejected.

 

Men today have become jaded, because they can't find a woman worth keeping, because they know that they're always looking for a guy on a level above -- in the case of David's first love from high school, her older college boyfriend, even though he had treated David's crush horribly, and ended up cheating on her and breaking her heart.

 

David had lost not only his confidence in himself, but his belief in real love and the value of having a good woman, who's not too blind to recognize the jerk, or appreciate the good guy who would have really appreciated her.

 

The movie gives hope that there can be someone out there who's feeling just as messed up as we are -- who feels as stuck and trapped and broken -- who wishes to be happy again, but doesn't feel that they are deserving of it.

 

The film shows that it's necessary to understand what caused you to be the way that you are, and how helpful it is to have someone who understands you, and doesn't judge you, right by your side as you relive the tragedies that you'd be too hesitant to re-examine on your own, who can help you view the events and your past self with gentler, more realistic eyes, so that you can feel better about and able to integrate that part of yourself back into you, so that you can control how it affects you on a conscious level, rather than letting it affect you unconsciously, in ways that are out of your control.

 

In Sarah's case, she believes that she can't be happy, and doesn't deserve to be happy, after how she treated men, and missed her mother's passing while committing an adulterous act -- not being there for the most important person in her life, to be with someone who didn't matter at all to her life.

 

These shadows haunt Sarah and David, and follow them around like the rain that follows them around for a lot of the movie, having to rely on umbrellas to keep it at bay. Water represents emotion, so they have it hanging over them constantly, unable to escape the emotional baggage they carry with them everywhere.

 

The car explosion scene signifies going through the fire. They do not escape unscathed, and need to burn away the harmful views they have of themselves and what they deserve, in order to move forward.

 

The film is really a work of art, where everything is a metaphor, with multiple meanings.

 

The use of the doors is brilliant, because it allows the viewers and the characters to experience and witness what wouldn't otherwise be accessible to them, in their full entirety.

 

The journey is a journey into the unconscious, through doors that your fear has caused to close and lock away from yourself, and the journey is to let yourself in again to those closed and locked rooms -- but not view them through the eyes of your childhood self who didn't know any better, but with wisdom, understanding, and love.

 

You can't truly love another without first loving yourself. My man taught me that years ago, and I know that this is what A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is taking us to discover.

 

David is finally able to recognize himself as special, and tell his younger self who didn't see it at the time that.

 

Sarah is able to see that she has a right to be happy, and can be happy, if she chooses that for herself.

 

Sarah's abandonment by her father made her feel unloved, and her fear of being abandoned like she and her mother had by her father made her hurt men before they might have the chance to hurt her again, such that she chooses to hurt them first, even though this makes it so that she is now the one who ends up hurting herself, again and again, through sabotaging herself from ever being in a meaningful relationship.

 

She had to open herself to a different possibility, where she could be loved and worthy of love and happiness, to be in a position where she could allow herself to take a risk on a chance for a change, with someone who has seen her darkest shadows, and chosen to love her and want to stick around and try with her anyway.

 

These are the relationships that we should strive for, and are open to us, if we don't settle for the idea that it's strong for women to sleep around and have multiple partners, and that guys will never find a woman who doesn't prefer the asshole.

 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey aims to show us what we can get when we "yes" to not running from our pasts, but opening ourselves up to learning from them, so that we can be with who we are actually meant to be with, know how to love them, and feel worthy of receiving love from them.  

 

And it shows that we can view the process as a big bold beautiful journey, and see the beauty in the tragedies, for how they have prepared us to understand each other, and be the partner for our, in this case, soulmate.

 

See below for a photo of a particularly connected moment between Sarah and David, taken from the movie's IMBD page.

 

 

 

The "Relation" in "Relationship," and Path Convergence with Your Partner

 

While discussing my review of A Big Bold Beautiful Journey with my man, he explained some aspects of the movie that I realized that I hadn't yet considered or addressed -- namely, how Sarah and David could relate to each other on so many levels, which enabled them to understand each other's situations deeply, earn each other's trust, and allow convergence in their paths to be possible.

 

As my man told me, in contrast with many relationships today, which are based on optical things, like appearance, money, and status, this movie focuses on the thing that most people don't address in their relationships: the shadows that people don't show their partners because they don't think that their partners will understand or accept them, which we think is related a lot of recurring problems in relationships, and could lead to break-ups, resulting from the shadows not being revealed to partners or addressed.

 

We feel that confronting shadows and helping heal one another is one of the most important parts of the relationship process, because, as my man says, "Relationship means understanding your partner -- otherwise, you wouldn't be relating (or resonating) with them. If you aren't relating to your partner, you can't be in a relationship with them. And if they're not relatable to you, it also won't work." And, as he explained, the tricky thing about relationships is finding someone who can understand your issues enough to not judge you for them, and actually want to help you work through the unresolved issues that keep you from moving forward, rather than looking down on you for them, or sharing the secret information that you trusted them with with other people, and using it to trash you to another person.

An example that my man gave me helps illustrate this well, of a woman having been raped in the past and not wanting men to touch her. If her partner is not aware of this part of her past, and the reason why she doesn't like being touched by men, then he may misinterpret it as her not being interested in him. For the relationship to work, the woman must be willing to open up about what happened to her, so that they can address it together, and help the woman see that her issue with touch stems from one man inappropriately and nonconsensually touching her, which would enable her to see that she does not have to universally fear and reject the touch of all men, and can give her partner a chance, rather than penalizing him for traumas that had been caused by what another man had done to her. She needs to be able to acknowledge the root cause of her unwillingness to be touched, and her partner needs to be able to relate to it on some capacity, be it he himself having been raped, or having someone else close to him been raped or physically assaulted in some way; having individuals who are close to him work in a field where they encounter individuals like that, such that he is exposed to situations like it, even third-hand; him having the empathy to understand how she must be feeling, etc. If he instead tells her that she is just making excuses, or was probably asking for it, as jaded men might in today's hoe culture, that would ensure that no healing could take place, as it would reinforce the woman's belief that her rape was not something that she should ever bring up to anyone, and cause her to further retreat into herself, and she will still not be able to be comfortable with touch from a man, which will ensure that the relationship fail.

 

As my man told me, they have to know why their partner is the way that they are, and heal it -- with both partners having to be willing to heal themselves, understand each other, and heal each other, for their paths to be able to converge and continue. 

 

In the case of David and Sarah, they can each relate to each other's hurting of others in response to and to avoid being hurt themselves.

 

As my man pointed out, both Sarah and David are too scared of commitment for fear of being hurt. Sarah is scared of becoming like her mother -- all alone by herself and struggling, with no one to care for her, scared of being hurt and alone and investing so much into someone, and it not working out. David is too scared of fully committing to women, because when he did fully commit to a girl, she crushed him. Their being hurt by others and desire not to be hurt again is understood by both. They relate to each other's cruelty with the opposite sex, knowing what it stems from. They can even understand each other's fear of hurting one another, and reluctance to pursue one another, for fear of being hurt or being the one doing the hurting. It is because they have been both on the giving and receiving ends of the hurt, and understand both sides, that they can totally relate to each other, and thus not judge each other for their issues. As my man said, though their situations are different, they are similar, and, because they are similar, they make David and Sarah relatable to each other. 

My man also stresses how important it is that the paths of relationship partners must converge, for a relationship to form and continue, with both parties at least partly involved in the things that their partner does, such that their partner's path becomes their path, and their path becomes their partner's -- helping each other fulfill each other's dreams, and caring about doing so.

One of the ways that this is shown in the film is in David and Sarah both being "closet geeks," with David being the lead actor in his high school's musical production, and Sarah confessing to being a "musical groupie," who proves it by being able to sing the song that David's co-star and crush was supposed to have sung, and fan-girling David while he performs. It's obvious that they can relate to each other's passion for musicals, such that Sarah's admiration for David grows when she watches him perform.

 

Unlike his high school crush, who couldn't appreciate his gifts or him, Sarah is able to see David's parents' belief in him being special, as she herself sees him as talented and special, able to heal him by showing him that other women that he is attracted to might appreciate his talents in the way that his past crush couldn't, and be able to and willing to accept her admiration of him as genuine, and start to believe in his own worth again.

 

With him as the star, and her as a groupie, they don't need to hide their fear of expressing their inner geek with one another, or fear being ridiculed by one another, but can support each other and feel supported by each other.

 

Partners need to be able to understand each other, and truly appreciate and support each other, and want the best for each other, to journey successfully together. See the movie still below, of Sarah having successfully helped David navigate his high school musical performance, so that they could exit the experience triumphantly together.

 

 

Actually, one can also see how they relate to each other in their desire to be married and have children at the beginning of the film, when David confesses to it being his only wish, and Sarah proposing to him after she hears about it, recognizing her own desire within him.

 

 

What to Expect

 

I didn't love the movie when I first finished seeing it, because I expected a different kind of journey, but, after really thinking about it and what it was created for and what it does, I think that it is really well done, and would recommend watching it to everyone, with the right frame of mind and willingness to watch it to get something out of it, rather than expecting to turn off your brain for a typical mindless romcom that you feel good watching, but don't get anything from but false dreams and fake love that you can use to escape your reality with.

 

The irony of A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is that it uses fantasy to explore reality, and uses portals that could take you anywhere -- to even the most magical, heart-melting moments -- to bring you to the most heart-wrenching moments of the main character's lives, that they would have probably tried at all cost to stay away from, were they by themselves. Being with a partner who forces them to walk through the doors anyway, in a playful manner, with them not knowing or judging what's on the other side, and even helping them see that it's not so bad, turns something that could be like facing one's worst nightmare into something much more bearable.

 

I think that this is how people should come into this movie -- understanding that they won't be getting sent on some thrilling romantic journey that sweeps them off their feet, and leaves them feeling breathless and happy; but, rather, that they will get put through moments that would suck the breath right out of them to relive, but that they can survive and even feel stronger for having done so, thanks to the company that they are now keeping.

 

As the characters say in reply to the statement, "It's funny how the most beautiful places make you feel the most alone, you know?"

 

"Maybe it just depends on the person you're with."

 

Expect to have your expectations blown out of the water, not in a thrilling, joyful way you might imagine -- where you leap and laugh and run through the halls of your high school without a care -- but instead knowing that that's how it feels when you've faced your emotional nightmares, and reclassified them as things that no longer constrain or crush you. I think that that is what that scene that is shown in the trailers for A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is really meant to signify.

 

A weight is lifted to the point where you can laugh, where you once cried for hours over the unfairness, and how small and worthless you felt.

 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey never pretended to be what it wasn't. Instead, it tried to tell you the correct lens with which to view it -- but people who haven't been on such journeys themselves, and don't understand their significance or want to undertake them or believe that they can do something similar themselves feel disappointed that it didn't give them the fantasy adventure that they wanted, but instead something real that made them feel uncomfortable about the vulnerability and honesty with which the characters expressed themselves -- unable to believe that anyone in real life could be so forthcoming and self-aware.

 

The people who say that A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is like a big long therapy session fail to see that it's how real life could play out, if people were more honest with each other, and chose to tell the truth to those who they hoped to have a meaningful relationship with, rather than give them the fake presentations and personas that people put on nowadays to win over people they don't even really know, because they are putting on the same show for them.

 

Anyways, the point that I have come to now, after thinking about this movie for weeks, and turning it over and over and over in my head, is that it is exactly what it should be, and will speak to the people that it speaks to, as well as to those who are willing to try to understand it, and allow themselves to witness its beauty and value.

 

If you can re-experience your past through more loving eyes, as a big bold beautiful journey, then you will understand why the title was chosen for the movie, and might even be inspired to take such a journey yourselves.

 

I definitely think that A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is worth watching and being inspired with.

 

See below for an image of Sarah convincing David to step through a doorway that he recognizes, and would otherwise prefer not to have to go through, taken from the movie's IMBD page.

 

 

As a song from the A Big Bold Beautiful Journey soundtrack says,

"When everythin' feels all over
Everybody seems unkind
I'll give you a four-leaf clover
Take all worry out of your mind...

Let my love open the door to your heart."

 

--

 

 

Review

 

Pros:

 

-introduces an important subject (shadow work) that many people are unfamiliar with, to the public, and on the big screen

-uses fantastical elements like a "soulmate-matching" car rental agency and GPSs, and magic doors to demonstrate the otherwise-impossible-to-visually-depict process of shadow work that normally takes place internally

-gorgeous cinematography

-authentic lead characters

-whimsical side characters

-excellent acting -- believable internal conflicts and journey

-attractive, seasoned leads

-intelligent dialogue 

-frames shadow work as it should be portrayed: as important (big), courageous (bold), and healing (beautiful) -- and perhaps the biggest, scariest, and most transformational journeys we can take -- showing the journey as a rewarding one, with beautiful moments along the way, despite the painfulness 

-sophisticated story line

-cool magic realism (e.g. magic doors)

-impressive and entertaining musical performance by Colin Farrell's character

-beautiful musical score contributes to messaging of movie

-very beautiful artistic shots, like the umbrella-filled outdoor wedding scene, lighthouse lookout, etc.

 

 

Cons:

 

-people might not approve of the big age gaps between the love interests (between the main characters, and between the main character and his high school love interest -- where adult David relives a scene with his high school-aged crush, even though David is explained to be viewed by everyone around them as his high school-aged version, which would make him the same age as his high school love interest)

-some might find the dialogue-heavy script slow-paced, though it is necessary to understand what the characters are experiencing

-doesn't have a lot of external action or typical "adventure" sequences that one might expect from a "journey"

-doesn't follow stereotypical romance movie scripts 

-people who aren't used to fantasies might find the movie kind of weird -- especially the weird car rental agency

-people who like movies grounded in reality might not like the magical elements

-people might find the characters unlikeable, due to the things that they did in their pasts

-people who like stories with straight-forward good guys vs. bad guys may not like having two grey-area protagonists, who have done bad things that they feel very guilty for, and have hurt a lot of other people 

 

 

Gem or Junk?

 

For us:

Gem (4 stars out of 5)

 

Honestly, after I’d finished watching the movie, I would have given it a 3.5, but, having thought more about it, I am bumping it up to 4 stars, because I understand the big task that it set out to do, and commend it for its attempt and execution.

 

With the right understanding, this movie can inspire more realistic views of love, and show the work that needs to be done to break patterns that always lead to bad ends, and heal the hurt that causes people to believe that such scenarios are inescapable to them.

 

There is too much settling going on nowadays -- settling for sex over real relationships; settling for avoiding women completely, knowing how many are superficial, asshole-preferring hoes; settling for the belief that you have no choice but to settle, because you aren’t worthy of anything better, and that you should just give up on real love, happiness, and relationships.

 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey asks viewers to give love a chance, and give themselves a chance, when life presents the person worth rethinking, reliving, and re-examining your life and everything you thought that you believed for, and how beautiful life can become when that is enabled.

 

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a film that shows shadow work, without saying what it’s doing, so if you’re not familiar with it, you won’t understand what’s going on, and probably won’t like what you see, since shadows are the nasty skeletons of our lives that we hide from ourselves and everyone, that follow us around and cast darkness even in what should be our lightest and brightest times.

 

My man and I have both done shadow work together and apart, like was featured in the movie, on our own shadows and dark parts. It was, in fact, my man who inspired me to start to face my shadows, go into them, explore them, re-examine them, see and understand them differently, and finally come to forgive myself and love myself, after recognizing the traumas of my past that had caused me to behave the way that I did, and understand that I was capable of making different choices, and becoming who I was before the hurt, once more -- and someone who I could love, moving forward.

 

That’s why my man and I both get what is being portrayed in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey -- having gone through similar journeys ourselves, and understanding the great difficulty involved in, but also great value of, doing so.

 

If you’ve been on a similar big bold beautiful journey of your own -- being forced to face the skeletons of your past, healing from and learning from them, and becoming a stronger person for having done so -- then you will feel recognition from seeing the characters finding themselves having no choice but to do the same, but coming to see beauty in the process of doing so, with a loved one who understands them, in having to make a similar big bold beautiful journey of their own.

 

You have to recognize that the journey in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is an external representation of an internal process, to truly appreciate what is going on, and why things are conveyed as they are, the choices of moments and places visited, etc. With these understandings, you'll see that the film is brilliantly-put together and executed.

 

And I'm glad that it brings Margot Robbie and Collin Farrell together -- two big-name actors who can actually act -- to draw in more of the general public to come see it. I know that part of the reason my man wanted to see it was for Colin Farrell, who he hadn't seen act in a really long time, and we also both like Margot Robbie, for her role playing Harley Quinn (which you can read more about in our Harley Quinn Funko review).

 

I think that the problem is that this can bring in people more accustomed to watching superficial characters and stories like Barbie, which is why we felt it necessary to prep you for this. The A Big Bold Beautiful Journey trailers do not prepare you for the real-life harshness of the moments that the two are forced to face, and we hope that this review will help you understand the movie through a lens that makes it make sense, to those who might not otherwise get it.

 

I should also note that you might find A Big Bold Beautiful Journey extremely weird, if you're not used to weird fantasy movies. The Adventurer told me that he found it extremely weird at the beginning, but that it grew on him as the movie unfolded, and he saw what was going on. Having myself seen and enjoyed quite a few eccentric movies, like Amélie, I felt okay with the quirkiness, though I did find the car rental agency woman's lines weird.

 

If you're someone who resonates with birth charts -- or at least with your own -- I actually believe that the people who will most relate to this movie are people with strong Scorpio birth chart placements, as Scorpio is the sign that knows tragedy and pain -- being forced to live through it again and again -- but also understanding the immense transformation and growth that come with going into the pain and understanding it, and becoming one with it -- taking control of it, rather than letting it control you.

 

I looked up Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell's birth charts, and, not surprisingly, I saw that they both have strong Scorpio placements, with Margot Robbie having a Scorpio Moon and Pluto in Scorpio (https://astro-charts.com/persons/chart/margot-robbie/), and Colin Farrell having a Scorpio Midheaven and North Node, and Uranus in Scorpio (https://astro-charts.com/persons/chart/colin-farrell/) . It makes sense to me why they can portray the characters so well, as it's obvious to me that they have probably had to endure loss and pain and suffering in their lives that have prepared them well for taking on the roles of Sarah and David. 

 

If you are ready to see what healing and opening yourself up to love really entail, no matter what your zodiac signs or placements, then you will get something out of this movie, whether or not you enjoy it.

 

 

 

Gems For Who?

 

1. People who like movies that make them think.

2. People who have done shadow work on themselves.

3. People who are aware of what shadow work is, and are interesting in seeing it depicted in a movie.

4. People who care about working on and improving themselves.

5. People who want to better understand the process of shadow work.

6. People who have hurt others and/or been hurt themselves, who need inspiration that they too can be healed, and strive for something better for themselves and their partners.

7. People who want a way to introduce shadow work to others, such as their partners and loved ones.

8. People who want a way to better explain shadow work to others.

9. Margot Robbie fans.

10. Colin Farrell fans.

11. People with strong Scorpio placements in their birth charts -- people with Scorpio Sun, Moon, Rising, South Node, or Stellium; Sun, Moon, Rising, or South Node in the eighth house, eighth house Stellium, Pluto in Scorpio, Pluto in the eighth house, the pig as their Chinese zodiac animal, etc.

12. People who have traumatic pasts and recognize them, and recognize what working through them, healing from them, and growing and transforming from them look and feel like.

13. People who like artistic films.

14. People who like romance movies.

15. People who like sincere and earnest movies.

16. Fans of magical realism.

17. People who like introspective movies.

18. Self-reflective people.

19. People who don't come into the film with expectations or preconceived notions.

20. People processing trauma.

21. People who like authentic, honest characters.

22. People who feel broken.

23. People who can't seem to move forward in life.

24. People who love movies with fantastical elements.

25. People who love or don't mind weird and whimsical movies.

26. People who want to see Colin Farrell singing and dancing.

27. People who don't come into the movie expecting a typical romcom.

 

 

Conclusion:

 

I decided to make this A Big Bold Beautiful Journey review because my man suggested that I do, and I'm really glad that he did, because it wasn't until I was forced to think about it that I realized what a gem it really is. I haven't seen a film show shadow work before, and really let you experience it, in such a creative, effective way, and I think that viewers seeing it, and understanding what they are seeing, could help viewers in their own lives and relationships.

 

The A Big Bold Beautiful Journey movie can rightly be called a work of art -- something not created to pander to the masses, or cater to the popular consensus of what a romantic fantasy should be, but rather, something that tells and shows the truth, no matter how uncomfortable or unsettling it may be. It is a very honest film that depicts the beauty of experiencing the ugliest parts of ourselves with someone who cares enough about us to see us at our worst, and yet still wants to be with us, and help us heal from our hurts -- who not only wants us for our bodies, but to connect with on a soul level.

 

It introduces us to two very flawed individuals who are very self-aware of how messed-up they are, but feel helpless and hopeless about doing anything about it -- and the beauty of the journey that happens when they come together, and work through what they couldn't on their own together.

 

If you understand that this is a movie meant to open up this possibility to you and others, if you haven't already gone through something similar yourselves, then you can get a lot out of it, and may even be moved to change your own life by starting with changing how you think about your own past.

 

Though no reference is made to shadow work, that is exactly what is being portrayed in the story line, from start to finish -- and very effectively so -- and I'm glad that it is able to reach wider audiences, and increase awareness for, and perhaps inspire others to face, the shadows of their own pasts, and search for a partner who can recognize their shadows and still want to stay with them and help them understand them and themselves, so that they can integrate their shadows and the lessons they can teach, and grow -- rather than running from their shadows and never being willing to take the risk of showing their true self, with all its vulnerabilities -- and potentially find someone who can truly love the real them, and push them to become even better.

 

This is a movie that can help you reconsider yourself -- whether you are someone who has been hurt, or hurt someone else, or both.

 

It's definitely a worthwhile watch, for everyone -- though I can't promise that you'll love it. But even if you don't love A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, you can still get something out of it, as long as you view it with an open mind, and with the understanding that it's meant to introduce you to possibilities that you might never have considered, and help you experience something that most people are not bold or courageous enough to undertake, because they haven't demonstrated that they want it enough.

 

If you like this review and want to read some of our past movie reviews, then you can click the links that follow, and read our Freakier Friday review, or our F1 The Movie Review.

 

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It takes a lot of time and effort to craft our reviews to help you, and we appreciate any form of support we can get.

 

We definitely aren't getting anything out of this review, but worked super-hard on it anyway, because we thought that it could bring a lot of value to those of you who probably want to be healed on the inside, but didn't even know that it was possible, or how to go about it.

If you like this review, please tell all your family, friends, and everyone else you know about it, as it would be great to get the word out about it, and maybe even change a few minds about the movie.

 

See you in my next post! 😊