Review: 'A Big Bold Beautiful Journey' is a romance with fantasy, whimsy and a good pairing of Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell. Now if it figure out where it's going.

The plodding fantasy-romance “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” feels like it’s trying to channel the whimsy of Wes Anderson for the first half hour, then pivot to some darker emotional material — and neither move in this wobbly drama is successful.

Colin Farrell plays David, a big-city resident who finds himself in need of a car so he can drive to a wedding in the country. He finds a rental car company that’s peculiar for several reasons — starting with the clerk who’s overly amused with herself (and played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, sporting a poorly chosen German accent) and her mechanic coworker (Kevin Kline). The clerk is insistent that David order the GPS option on the car, so he does.

During the wedding, David’s eyes meet those of Sarah (Margot Robbie), and the bride (Lucy Thomas) introduces them. Their small talk turns suddenly serious, with both informing the other that they are single by choice, and that seeing another couple get married isn’t likely to change it. Something else David discovers he has in common with Sarah: They’re both driving nearly 30-year-old Saturns, apparently from the same offbeat rental company. 

On the drive back, David’s GPS (voiced by Jodie Turner-Smith) asks David if he would like to take “a big bold beautiful journey.” After a moment of disbelief, David agrees and follows the bot’s instructions to pull over at a nearby Burger King and order a cheeseburger. As he starts eating, he notices that Sarah is also there, also eating a cheeseburger. Once back in their cars, Sarah’s won’t start, and David’s GPS tells him to give her a ride.

What follows in this sluggishly episodic script (by Seth Reiss, who co-wrote “The Menu”) is a series of stops where David and Sarah find a door in a place where doors normally would not be. Of course, they go through these doors, and find something that links back to the past of one or the other. These stops begin humorous, like when David relives a high school production of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” but gradually turn melancholy, like taking Sarah back to the death of her mother (Lily Rabe). 

The single-named director Kogonada (“Columbus,” “After Yang”) should be able to navigate this premise well, but somehow the balance of whimsy and melancholy never feels right. It’s the same problem suffered by this year’s “The Life of Chuck,” which also tried to say something profound about the human condition and couldn’t find the right tone.

The biggest shame in “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” is that we, as lovers of film romance, would love to see Farrell and Robbie in a movie where they gradually fall in love with each other. Here’s hoping they, and movie makers they meet, don’t give up on trying.

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‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’

★★

Opens Friday, September 19, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for language. Running time: 108 minutes.