You Can Tell ‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’ Was Written By A Man

Before you think I’m jumping on the hate bandwagon (after all, this new movie currently has 41% on Rotten Tomatoes) I actually loved it.

That doesn’t change the fact that A Big Bold Beautiful Journey has all the hallmarks of a romance written by a man. From the characters to the tone to the music, it hearkens back to the early 2000s when the filmscape was flooded with indie movies starring perfect men obsessed with extremely flawed and unavailable women. But does that make this a bad movie? Considering I left the theater with a smile on my face, maybe not. Here’s how you can tell this was written by a man (Seth Reiss):

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl gets the 2025 edit.

The indie romance movie scene always had one thing in common: They all had the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. She’s a little nuts. She’s elusive. She probably has colored hair. And of course she makes the male main character feel alive again. That’s her sole role. She isn’t a person–she’s a catalyst for his growth and the object of his obsession. Think Sam in Garden State (2004) or Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) or Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010).

We all thought the Manic Pixie Dream Girl was over, but here we are with Margot Robbie as Sarah. Sure, her hair is a drab dirty blonde and she’s older than the women I just mentioned were in their movies. But of course they are. The men who loved those movies have gotten older. And how is Sarah a MPDG? She’s silly. She’s not like other women. She’s upfront that she’s flawed. She tells him not to fall for her, then asks him to marry her a moment later,. She’s whiplash personified. Clearly the MPDG is back.

Colin Farrell’s character is such a ‘Gary Stu.’

You may have heard of the ‘Mary Sue.’ It’s a flawless female main character that the author clearly sees as herself. It’s Bella from Twilight. The male equivalent to this is the ‘Gary Stu,’ a hallmark of all those old indie romances written by men, and that’s the case for A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. While Sarah is incredibly flawed from the start, Colin Farrell’s David seems to have a perfectly fine life aside from being single. He’s nice, kind, has two loving parents who raised him well. In that way he’s like a cardboard cutout stand-in for the screenwriter of this piece, hoping to live vicariously through his main character. Seth Reiss, is David your Gary Stu?

It’s dripping with symbolism.

Leave it to a romance written by a man to have symbolism literally everywhere. To have long, drawn-out conversations about philosophy or generic emotions or how he doesn’t care that she’s flawed–with him, it’ll be different. And considering it’s been decades since the big indie romance boom, this entirely symbolic and wonderfully absurd movie feels fresh. Because we’ve had so many straight-to-the-point movies lately. A Big Bold Beautiful Adventure feels refreshing.

And yet…

By the title of this review, you might think I hated the movie. That, to me, it being written by a man is a bad thing. Alas, I liked it way more than I was expecting. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey has equal parts nostalgia and originality. For those of us who actually liked the indie romances of the ’00s, this will feel familiar in a way that we haven’t felt in a long time. Is Sarah a Manic Pixie Dream Girl and David a Gary Stu? Sure, but is that so bad?

If you go in expecting it to be absurd and silly and full of symbolism and philosophy and deep conversations, there’s a chance that you’ll like it. (I’m also happy and surprised to report that it actually passes the Bechdel Test, as there are moments of two women talking to each other about things other than a man. Success!)

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is in theaters now.