The Lost City
The plot to The Lost City may be a little formulaic, but the execution is sublime – this adventure romcom had me laughing from beginning to end. Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum are a great comedy pairing, while the rest of the cast (including Daniel Radcliffe and Brad Pitt) all get their fair share of laugh-out-loud moments.
Premise: As disillusioned romance novelist Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) reluctantly starts a book tour to promote the latest – and purportedly final – novel in her successful series, she’s abducted by eccentric billionaire Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe) who hopes to use her to find the ancient treasure of the Lost City of D. But he didn’t reckon on Alan (Channing Tatum), the clueless cover model hired by Loretta's publicist to play the novel’s hero at publicity events, following them to the remote island to rescue Loretta.
Review:
I have to start the review for The Lost City by addressing the elephant in the room – when I first heard about this film, I immediately thought that it sounded like a complete rip-off of Romancing the Stone. And on paper, at least, there are a lot of surface similarities – both involve female authors of adventure/romance novels who find themselves caught up in a real-life adventure in a remote jungle, and then have to team up with someone who appears to personify the male hero from their novels. But in fairness, that’s about as far as the similarities go.
For a start, Loretta Sage (played by Sandra Bullock) is a very different character from Joan Wilder – her emotional withdrawal from the world is a result of her still coming to terms with the death of her husband, but she’s no damsel in distress for the most part. But a far bigger difference from Romancing the Stone is arguably in this film’s depiction of its male lead – whereas Jack Colton was the same kind of rugged, no nonsense “alpha male” that Joan Wilder used to write about, Channing Tatum’s Alan Caprison is far removed from that trope. He’s clueless, ill-equipped and hilariously out of his depth – but his heart’s in the right place, and he’s desperate to prove himself to Loretta after their first appearance on their book tour ends in disaster. It’s also refreshing to see a Hollywood romcom where the female lead is 16 years older than the male lead, rather than the other way around.
“…this is first & foremost a comedy…”
Crucially, whereas Romancing the Stone was more of an “adventure” film than a “comedy” (leaving aside the “romance” part of the “adventure romcom” formula for a moment), The Lost City is first and foremost a comedy, with the adventure elements being used as the backdrop for the humour. In fact, with its bickering co-stars and emphasis on treasure hunting, last year’s (far more mediocre) Jungle Cruise was closer in tone and spirit to Romancing the Stone than The Lost City is. The plot to The Lost City may be fairly formulaic, but I didn’t mind this at all, because the plot was only there to move the film from one comedic moment to the next.
Of course, if you’re going to place so much emphasis on the comedy side of the “adventure/comedy” equation, you need to make sure your film is actually funny – but thankfully, The Lost City had me laughing out loud from beginning to end. It has everything from slapstick physical comedy, to (suitable for a 12A rating) gross-out comedy, to a near constant stream of great dialogue and one-liners.
“…Bullock & Tatum have great comedic chemistry together…”
Everyone is the cast gets several moments to showcase their comedy skills, but Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum are front and centre, and have great comedic chemistry together. Sandra Bullock plays with her character’s exasperation and sarcasm, without ever losing sight of her humanity and emotional vulnerability, while also being the more dominant and confident character in the leading duo. Channing Tatum, meanwhile, continues to do no wrong when it comes to his comedic roles, and he makes Alan comical but without the character ever becoming a joke himself. He’s not so much a bumbling idiot, as just a man who (completely understandably) is very much out of this depth.
Playing the villain of the film is Daniel Radcliffe, who seems to be having a whale of a time as he continues his run of playing over-the-top comedic characters, following on from last year’s insane Guns Akimbo. Played very much for laughs, Daniel Radcliffe’s billionaire Abigail Fairfax is the spoilt son of a media tycoon, and it’s delightfully ridiculous (yet oddly believable) that his sole motivation for his evil scheme is to get back at his younger brother. Meanwhile, Brad Pitt has a scene stealing cameo, and even if you can guess a mile off where it’s going, it’s still a lot of fun. Relative newcomer Da'Vine Joy Randolph is fantastic as Beth, Loretta's publicist who goes to extreme lengths for her client, and there are a host of other smaller supporting roles that I won’t spoil here.
“…the film’s strength lies in the execution of its concept…”
As if to highlight that the emphasis is very much more on the “comedy” than the “adventure” elements, the film doesn’t really have an action climax per se, and its dénouement is centred around the laughs and emotion of the romcom genre rather than an elaborate action-packed confrontation. In fact, the film shies away from violence of any kind for the most part, and this results in a great comedic scene where the characters have to rationalise having accidentally offed a couple of goons.
Ultimately, there are those who will say that The Lost City is derivative and unoriginal, and on a purely plot-based, conceptual level, they’re probably right. But what makes this film so much fun is everything else that’s built up around the wafer-thin plot – be that the excellent cast, the luscious location filming in the Dominican Republic, or the countless number of memorable comedic moments. Sometimes, a film’s strength lies in the execution of its concept, rather than the concept itself, and The Lost City certainly falls into that category.
Oh, and make sure you stay for a mid-credits scene that is so comically absurd, it’s inspired.
