The Lost City

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

When Loretta, a world-renowned historical romance author, gets kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire to decipher an ancient text that is the key to unlocking the treasure of a lost civilisation; she must turn to her intuition and cover model to save her. And the cover model? Well he's more than a little in over his head and possibly lovestruck too. Over the past five years I've really seen the romantic comedy genre push the box and try new things to stand out again, which I've really loved. What you get in this film is a lot more traditional and reminded me of the style of rom-coms we used to get in the 90s to the early 2000s. The joy of this is the light humour of two people who are polar opposites to one another bumbling through such an unlikely circumstance. This works wonderfully in two ways: firstly, the humour often lands in a great way but secondly the main relationship between Alan and Loretta is wonderful to watch. At the core of the film we have Loretta, a well-renowned author and recluse after the loss of her husband. Watching her grate against everyone and want to shelter away is hugely important as the film continues to draw her further out into peril and adventure. Meanwhile her charming if not naive cover model, Alan, endeavours to rescue her though is far from equipped for the job and tends to bumble through it. What I really love about this relationship is that they each have assumptions about the other that they have to learn from and they each have affection for they other which is allowed to steadily bloom and grow. I think at its very core the film serves the story of it's two protagonists exceptionally well and their chemistry is undeniable. I also thought the Nee Brothers had such great vision when it came to the cinematography of this feature; everything was really vivid and colourful. I loved how they crafted these melodramatic, sensual shots to compare with the historical romance novels they were referencing. The soundtrack for The Lost City is brilliant, it holds a lot of classic fun beats and prioritises utilising tracks to enhance the comedy.

 

Sandra Bullock, who played Loretta, is perfectly suited for this tired and reclusive protagonist who is flung into sudden adventure; Bullock has a real sense of wit and intellect to her constantly and the way she describes scenes from her 'books' is well delivered. Channing Tatum, who played Alan, is really funny with his often naive and bumbling humour; yet I liked how Tatum built up this gentle sincerity with his role which made him quite the winning role to pair against Bullock's Loretta. Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who played Beth Hatten, really feels like she is holding everything together by the tips of her fingers; I loved Randolph's emphatic line delivery and how she often became the centre of attention in whichever scene she was in. Brad Pitt, who played Jack Trainer, was hysterical as this very spiritual yogi who also doubled as an ex-military mercenary; the way Pitt breezed through scenes with a calm confidence made him instantly one of the funnier aspects of the feature. Patti Harrison, who played Allison, is the sort of comedic minor role that is usually forgotten about in this sort of film; but Harrison's line delivery stands out like nothing else and it feels unique from every other comedic moment in the film which I really applaud.

However, the best performance came from Daniel Radcliffe, who played Abigail Fairfax. This is one of the biggest roles I've seen Radcliffe in since Now You See Me 2 and honestly back then I really couldn't imagine him breaking away from the shadow of Harry Potter. But it's really impressive to see what a few years on the Indie film and TV scene have done for him as a performer. In this feature Radcliffe presents an eexorbitantly wealthy antagonist who is hellbent on uncovering an ancient lost treasure at any expense. From very early on we can see that Abigail tries to hide himself behind a thin layer of charm and earnestness. But his ever-present jealousy towards his other wealthy sibling, and sudden bursts of temper make him quite a loose cannon. Radcliffe revels in portraying quite a classic villain, someone who has no qualms about controlling and manipulating others for his own ends. The humour from this character is often heavy sarcasm or dealing with comedic dialogue in a heavily serious manner which Radcliffe portrays brilliantly. I was honestly impressed with how unhinged this role becomes the further along we go, it was a really fun arc and hopefully a sign of more mainstream roles for Radcliffe in the future.

While The Lost City is a highly entertaining romantic comedy it doesn't dare and it never takes risks. I mentioned earlier that this is more like a traditional rom-com and that's very true in some of the negatives of the film too. While the execution is very good, the basic premise of two unlike people who discover there is more than meets the eye has been done in hundred of these types of movies. It makes a lot of how the relationship plays out quite predictable, almost beat for beat. But even less inspired than the structure of the romance is the structure of the adventure plot. Having the main characters quest around with a treasure map from obstacke to obstacle until they inevitably find the lost treasure in the climax of the final act could've been a lot more thrilling than it was. Frankly when the film wasn't using those moments for comedy I didn't find myself feeling engaged, because the script really needed to be a lot more creative. I also think The Lost City bogged itself down with subplots, like Beth travelling to come rescue Loretta and Alan. The special effects used throughout the film weren't the best, I especially found the moments in which scenery and setting were imposed to often clash with the sets that were actually present. Pinar Toprak's score is very peppy but often generic, an adventure film cliche that didn't add much across the board.

Oscar Nuñez, who played Oscar, is one of the creepier roles in the film which doesn't work at all comedically; trying to pair Nuñez and Randolph together fell very flat and felt like an unnecessary introduction of an extra side character. Héctor Anibal, Thomas Forbes-Johnson and Sli Lewis, who played Rafi, Julian and Shades respectively, were little more than glorified henchmen in the film and never stood apart as actualy characters; for Anibal I found this most disappointing because his role was hinted at having some personal stake in the story but he never brought anything to that.

A romantic comedy that finds success in keeping it simple, funny and charming. I would give The Lost City a 6.5/10.