The more popular choice this weekend would have been Him.  Though not directed by Jordan Peele, the same person who brought us Get Out (2017) and Us (2019), Him nonetheless comes from his studio.  His name also appears as a producer.  This latest film seems to be in the same spirit as its forerunners based on the trailer.  In other words, full of a lot of images that I would rather not see.  Further, it looks to be somewhat of a criticism of professional football, which is great timing considering the opening of the 2025 National Football League (NFL) season.  Also premiering is A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.  Aside from all my misgivings about Peele’s work, this last one has a title designed to appeal to a practicing Catholic like me.  Indeed, it can be a metaphor for faith itself.  I want to say this movie is for everyone, though by the end of my synopsis I wonder if you will agree?

Speaking of agreeing, David’s (Colin Farrell) parents are in accord that their son needs something like A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.  As a middle-aged adult, he has turned into a loner, yet one that claims to be okay with a habitually single status.  As such, they are happy to hear that he is going to a wedding and hope that he has fun.  Between the rain and the fact that his car has a boot on it, the weekend does not get off to a good start.  To remedy the transport situation, he goes to rental car company he sees advertised outside his apartment.  It is the first of many strange occurrences throughout the course of the next few days.  The only vehicles available are ancient Saturns, and the clerks, the Female Cashier (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and The Mechanic (Kevin Kline), seem to know more about David than is normal.  Despite them also sitting at a desk at the end of a long warehouse, David allows them to convince him to purchase their global positioning system (GPS) for the car rather than use his phone, which could “crap out” at any time.  Having endured this process, David makes it to the venue where during the ceremony he meets Sarah (Margot Robbie).  The often inevitability of two single people talking at such functions occurs, but she is adamant that he should want nothing to do with her.  Her reason is that she is a terrible person and that it will just end poorly.  He has the same idea in the back of his mind, but only because he believes nothing ever works out for him.  Thus, their mingling at the reception is brief and they go to bed separately.  In the morning as they are driving back, David’s GPS (voiced by Jodie Turner-Smith) asks if he is ready for the title event.  With some convincing, he shouts his enthusiasm for it and ends up at a Burger King off the interstate.  A couple seats over from him is Sarah.  They share a bit more about their lives but agree that they should not pursue a relationship.  What changes is when he gets back in the car and the GPS tells him to pick her up.  Conveniently, her car will not start.  Seeing no alternative, and because they both rented from the same company, they join their journeys.  From here they make the trek to a series of doors that take them to different points in their lives.  The first is a lighthouse David had visited a few months previously.  He comments how the view from the top of it is supposed to make people feel reflective about their lives, but he felt nothing.  The next is for Sarah.  They are transported to an art museum she has special access to, one she used to visit with her late mother (Lily Rabe).  Clearly, they both have unresolved issues.  For David, it goes back to his high school days, which is the proceeding door.  They arrive at a point when he is fifteen (Yuvi Hecht) and about to perform in a high school musical.  Prior to going on stage, he has an encounter with Stacy Dunn (Jacqueline Novak), his crush.  His profession of his love is rebuffed, and it is the first time he does not feel like he has any worth.  He is saved by Sarah standing up in the audience and singing to him, and they exit out the back of the theater.  By now, they are beginning to have feelings for one another, but they do not know how to proceed.  This is especially true for Sarah, who is then taken to be with her deceased mother where she admits that she likes David but is unsure that she will do the right thing.  Afterwards, she says that this is different from what actually happened because at the time of her mother’s passing, she had been sleeping with her professor.  He tries to reassure her that she is not a terrible person, and it results in them sharing a kiss in another magical setting overlooking the Earth.  It is their penultimate stop reveals the worst of them.  They are simultaneously brought to a café where they confront former lovers, his ex-fiancée (Sarah Gadon) and her ex-boyfriend (Billy Magnussen).  David had called off the engagement because he felt unfulfilled, and Sarah surreptitiously leaves her boyfriend when he gets too close.  It is an emotional wreck of a moment that is followed by an actual car wreck when they hit a deer.  They emerge from the flipped vehicle remarkably without injury, making their way to a nearby hotel, but Sarah suggests that they should not be together.  In the morning, with The Mechanic miraculously fixes the rental.  David drops her off at her vehicle, and they go their separate ways. Each of their GPS is trying to get them to reunite, but they insist on going home.  For David, this is back to the night of the musical, with him in the role of his dad (Hamish Linklater) telling himself that he is special.  In Sarah’s case, she spends the night as a twelve-year-old with her mom getting advice on being a better adult.  It all ends with her coming to his place and confessing her love for him.

If it is going to be called A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, I am glad it has a happy ending, though I will talk more about that in the next paragraph.  What I will focus on here is the journey itself.  There is a common saying in Christian circles, even extending beyond them, that when God closes one door, He opens another.  There are some loose Scriptural bases for this idiom, but the point is that when something comes to a conclusion, your life is not over.  That is what the film is trying to tell us without the theological tone.  It is effective in its execution, but I am guessing that many thought the plot meandered a bit.  If you have the expectation based on similar cinematic fare that David and Sarah are going to end up together, then I can understand why one could view much of what happens to be extraneous.  A Christian has a different take.  In spiritual direction, for myself and what I have given to my directees, we are told at times to focus on what we usually find to be distracting thoughts.  It is like opening the door unto a scene we keep in our hearts and minds, one of some import.  In prayer, we want to be mindful of God’s presence to the exclusion of everything else.  But it is equally true that He can bring up old memories that He wants us to relive and for Him to heal.  The key is to allow God to do the work.  David and Sarah do not want to let anyone in, in their cases members of the opposite sex.  They are afraid of the hurt and tell themselves that they are better off alone.  This is the result of the past trauma unto which they open doors.  Only by seeing them in a different light, which is something God can do for us, can we close those doors and move on with our lives.

It is interesting that our lives can be considered A Big Bold Beautiful Journey when all David and Sarah want to do is be stuck in the past.  A journey implies moving forward, but they cannot do so until they deal with the past.  You might think doing so will lead to happiness, but that is not the point of the film.  Instead, where it lands is on contentment, stating that happiness is harder.  This can sound harsh, but there is some Catholic grounding for such sentiments.  The most often quoted phrase here on The Legionnaire comes from the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who said “The world offers you comfort.  But you were not made for comfort.  You were made for greatness.”  We pursue comfort because we equate that with happiness.  If we are not comfortable in a relationship as with David and Sarah with their experiences, we think we are not happy and therefore end them.  That is not to say that the break ups were the wrong decision, only a commentary on their disordered view of life at those points.  What the quote suggests is that life is not going to be comfortable.  This dovetails with the film, which asserts that it is in chasing after happiness that tends to get people in trouble.  God does not promise that our lives are going to be perfect, which is another mis-equation with happiness.  What He does do is promise to love us through everything we may experience.  Faith is about being content with those experiences.  In this way, choosing God is akin to choosing contentment, which is where the movie lands.

Contentment is a good word for describing how I feel about A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.  There were a few moments that definitely moved me, though I get why some might feel it could be better paced.  There is also some foul language that is sprinkled in purely for comedic effect.  Otherwise, this is about as solid a movie as I have seen.