The Movie Guru: ‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’ and ‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ messy yet satisfying

‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’ (in theaters)

Do you like your romantic fluff with a heaping dose of whimsy and working through personal trauma?

If you do, then you’ll probably like “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.” Much like 2013’s “About Time,” the movie adds a fantastical element to the story of two people falling in love and working through their issues. It’s exactly as cheesy as it sounds, but if this kind of movie is your jam, then that’s a feature not a bug. Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell are great as the leads, though far too pretty to convincingly sell the “average person” idea the movie wants to sell us, and though their chemistry may not sizzle they’re definitely sweet together.

The premise starts with two strangers meeting at a wedding, then taking a drive together with a magical GPS. It takes them to an equally magical door that lets them visit different moments in each of their lives. Trying it out changes everything, making them reflect on the things that made them who they are and where they go from here.

The movie is sensitive about working through some pretty universal griefs, including depression and the death of a parent. The only real issue the movie has is an absolutely ridiculous amount of blatant product placement, which hampers both the romantic and emotional parts of the movie.

Still, it’s not enough to ruin things. The ride may be a little messy, but if you love love then the movie is definitely worth the journey.

Support Local Journalism

Donate

Grade: Two and a half stars

‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle’ (in theaters)

“Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” is a good anime, but I’m not sure how well it works as a movie.

Jumping directly off the season four finale of the anime series, the movie is the start of a planned three movie trilogy that will wrap the whole thing up. The fight scenes are fantastic, and there’s a lot of emotion that’ll hit hard for longtime fans, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s less a movie and more a bunch of cool episodes stuck together. The episodes even suffer from being stuck together, with the flashbacks not having a chance to breathe and the fight scenes feeling like they’re being stepped on by the flashbacks. There’s a lot to like here, but with some restructuring (or a recut that lets them be released as episodes) it could be even better.

Catching newbies up on the full lore world take more space than this review has, but here are the basics. After demons murdered his family and transformed his sister, Tanjiro Kamado became a demon slayer. After falling into a trap, he and his demon-slaying friends are stuck in the constantly shifting Infinity Castle fighting powerful demons important to their character arcs. The movie is basically three of these fights, peppered with flashbacks.

Those who watched the series recently will have no trouble following, but some sort of introduction would help the movie do a better job of standing on its own. As it is, it’s still the start of a powerful, dramatic finale.

Grade: Three stars

Jenniffer Wardell is an award-winning movie critic and member of the Denver Film Critics Society and the Utah Film Critics Association. Drop her a line at themovieguruslc@gmail.com.