Director Kogonada’s new movie A Big Bold Beautiful Journey receives mixed reviews from critics. It shows a story which is blended with  romance, fantasy, and personal insight in a style that feels like a fairy tale. Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell first collaboration brings Academy Award nomination. The  romantic fantasy film story is written by Seth Reiss. 

Kogonada is famous for his thoughtful movies including “Columbus” and “After Yang.” while Seth Reiss is previously scripting for “The Menu”. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey was shot in California with a production budget of $45 million. Joe Hisaishi scored and was his first time for a Western film with additional songs by Laufey and a Mitski cover.

Critical Concern Over Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell Chemistry

The film gets mixed reactions from critics. This film scores 55% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic gave a 42/100 rating to this film as Kogonada’s skill for making this film with high quality material and the strong acting from the leads. Despite the best directorial work, they are concerned about the script’s execution. 

Critical Concerns is about tone mismatches and uneven pacing from the actors. Variety noted that “Farrell and Robbie seem remote and oddly flat, even in moments of deep intimacy and vulnerable feelings.”  The New Yorker‘s Richard Brody suggested about directorial talent and pointing it to going in a wrong way. Rolling Stone hit hard, calling it a “disaster” which shows very tough pinching on director’s talent and actors’ wrong choice by taking this movie.

Overall, the film’s cinematography and theme is fantastic which received good reviews. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian rated it 3/5 stars. He also suggests that film needs to polish its work of art and let go of doubts. Little White praised Kogonada’s “singular, warm sensibility which is worth the ride for fans of its soft emotions, and gave 80/100.

Box Office Performance Down Scale the Movie

As Deadline noted, Unfortunately, the film faced big troubles at the box office. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey was released on 19 September, 2025 in 3330 theatres and earned  only $3.5 million in opening. With a $45 million budget production film received just $8.9 million worldwide is a disaster. 

This represents a sharp difference from Margot Robbie’s last hit film, “Barbie.” which earned about $70.5 million on its opening day. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” 98% lower, the poor performance led to rapid decline in theatrical run.

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Theme And The Plot

NPR says, The story follows Sarah (Margot Robbie) and David (Colin Farrell), two single strangers met at their mutual friend’s wedding. Both characters are suffering from their past relationships and not ready for commitment. This movie is inspired from films like “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Howl’s Moving Castle“, these movies are a blend fantasy of characters who deep dive into love, sorrow, faithfulness. The reflection of these movies are shown in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. 

The Hollywood Reporter mentioned, Kogonada’s unique way of shooting stands out in every scene. He uses neat frames and bright colors. The movie’s dramatic feel, like a stage production, reflects its exploration of performance and realistic love bond.

Conclusion

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is receiving positive and negative reviews from critics and audiences. Positive review received for the film’s visual and blend of fantasy, and introspection but criticized for Actors low energy in some shots and Direction of Kogonada. The critical concern impacted the movie’s further theatrical run. Margot Robbie as Sarah and Colin Farrell as David performed well but seems too distant at the point which makes romantic fantasy film score less. Overall, the movie is still liked by some viewers, as the emotional comedy and artistic ambitions.

Aniston played Rachel Green on ‘Friends’ for ten seasons from 1994 to 2004, a character whose mannerisms, hairstyle, and love interests defined what it meant to be a 20-something woman around the world. The actress could not be disentangled from the character, it’s hard for everyone to recognize Aniston in other characters. Rachel Green was everywhere, on lunch boxes, in syndication, and in the cultural lexicon.  

Aniston noted that she —
“Couldn’t get over from the shadow of Rachel Green ever in my life” 

describing the experience as “exhausting”. The character was a “poor little rich daddy’s girl”, a specific archetype that afforded little room for the darkness or grit required of dramatic acting. Aniston admitted to fighting with herself and her identity in the industry “forever,” constantly trying to prove 

She was “more than that person”.
—Aniston said

FRIENDS Could have Lost Jennifer Anniston at First

Jennifer Aniston’s whole Friends run nearly never happened because she was at that time already committed to a CBS sitcom titled Muddling Through back in 1994. Because she was “only in second position” for Friends, NBC was worried that they might have to recast Rachel if the CBS show was a hit, and speculated about shooting multiple episodes, only for CBS to pick it up and they’d have to do reshoots. 

Aniston got her big break when Muddling Through was cancelled, and that led to her being cast on Friends – which just goes to show how precarious a career in Hollywood can be, and how one cancellation can make way for the series that takes an actor global and defines their stardom. 

Aniston’s The Good Girl, Horrible Bosses, & Cake break the FRIENDS curse

Helmed by Miguel Arteta, the film stars Aniston as Justine Last, a dour employee at a mall shoe store who has a clandestine relationship with a younger coworker (Jake Gyllenhaal). The choice to accept the part was nerve-racking.  

“Panic that set over me,” thinking, “Oh God, I don’t know if I can do this? Maybe they’re right”.
—Aniston recalls

The film was an independent production, lacking the safety net of a major studio marketing budget or a laugh track. It required Aniston to perform “without a net” in front of the world. The success of The Good Girl and the critical acclaim she received—provided the “relief” necessary to continue pursuing dramatic work. It was the proof of concept that she could exist outside the “purple walls” of the sitcom apartment.

If The Good Girl proved she could be sad, Horrible Bosses proved she could be predatory. The appeal lay in the “black comedy” element. Aniston argued that “Comedy is a necessity,” but she expressed a preference for the “craziness” of the Horrible Bosses universe over the gentler comedy of Friends.

“Maybe everybody else is seeing something I’m not seeing, which is you are only that girl in the New York apartment with the purple walls”.

This quote speaks to the psychological complexity of the curse—it wasn’t only that she believed producers wouldn’t hire her but she was afraid she wasn’t capable of doing the work. 

Breaking the curse required exposure therapy. By performing in independent films like The Good Girl and Cake, where the safety nets of budget and ensemble were removed, Aniston forced the industry to recalibrate its perception of her utility. 

Cake is the ultimate punishment to shatter the curse. In this film, Aniston portrays Claire Bennett, a woman struggling with crippling chronic pain and addiction. Aniston quit exercising and wearing makeup. She studied friends with chronic pain to get a sense of what the condition felt like physically.  

She allowed the role to “hurt” her, noting that during physical scenes, she “didn’t prepare” in the traditional sense but rather let the physical discomfort generate a real reaction.

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The Morning Show – The Strong New Chapter For Jennifer Aniston

The morning show era (TMS), Executive produced and co-created by Reese Witherspoon is the shift from Aniston the Actress to Aniston the Mogul. The show is more than just an acting vehicle, it’s a platform for industry commentary and power play. 

The partnership with Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company created an environment of “understanding, compassion and consideration” that Aniston notes 

“Doesn’t always exist amongst the dudes”.

Alex Levy is the culmination of Aniston’s post-Friends evolution. She is a morning news anchor, but she shares no DNA with Rachel Green. Alex is “complex, vulnerable, controlled, lonely, enraged, self-serving”.

In Season 4 (2025), Alex has transcended the anchor desk to become a corporate executive. She is no longer fighting for a contract; she is fighting for the soul of the network. Critics have praised Aniston’s performance in this era as

“It is the best of her performances and able to perform mature characters” 

noting her ability to portray moral conflict without the melodrama that sometimes plagued her earlier dramatic attempts. The role gives Aniston a chance to examine issues of power, complicity and growing older in a way Friends never did. 

Conclusion

By 2025, she’s at a place very few could have predicted back in 2004: she’s the boss. On The Morning Show, she plays a character who runs the network, much like in real life, where she’s a producer on the show. She swapped the “purple walls” of the Friends apartment for the glass walls of the UBN executive suite. Jennifer Aniston has now shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is, in fact, “more than that person.” 

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