This is the first big, bold, beautiful film of the year (that I have seen anyway.) It’s a thoroughly odd romantic fantasy set in a surreal world from Kogonada, the director of Columbus (2017), which was also the story of a couple of people tip-toeing around attraction while carrying a lot of baggage. The film stars Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie as two singles, Sarah and David, who meet at a wedding. There is an immediate attraction, but she ends up with another guy, and that’s that. Until they just happen to meet up the next day on their way home from the wedding at a fast food joint where her car mysteriously doesn’t start, so she hitches a ride with David, since they fortunately live in the same town.
David and Sarah are both driving 1994 Saturns that they have rented from a very strange car rental agency run by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kevin Kline. The GPS that David was talked into adding, despite his assertion that he could just use his phone, becomes more than a compass, directing them to stop at particular points along the way. At each stop they have to go through a door, which leads to a place and time in their lives that was significant.
And it is through these shared experiences that they get to know one another, and the pain that has turned them both into the single 40-somethings they are. And it is also this sharing in pain that brings them closer and closer to one another.
This film is definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. It reminded me of some of Yorgos Lanthimos earlier films, particularly The Lobster (2015) (which also starred Colin Farrell) as it place a romance is a surreally off kilter world, just slightly removed from reality. It is also a bit schmaltzy at times, though I was strangely fine with that, as it seems to fit with the story. And there is great chemistry between the leads that makes up for some bumps along the way. It’s not your usual romance, but it is affective. I like a filmmaker taking creative risks, even when they don’t get it perfect. And it is gorgeously shot.
In theaters now.