“The Lost City” has a promising meta premise: romance novelist Loretta Sage, played by Sandra Bullock, is kidnapped by an “eccentric” billionaire and her books’ cover model must become like the hero in the books and rescue her. But the film is about as vapid as the romance novels it aims to satirize.
The writers attempt to bring depth to Loretta by making her a widow, but Bullock’s character hardly portrays grief and the audience must continuously be reminded that she’s supposed to be sad. Bullock plays Loretta like every character she’s played since “Miss Congeniality.” She’s “not like the other girls,” awkwardly expressive with her body and adverse to falling in love. What might have been charming 20 years ago feels overdone from her now.
It’s hard to hate Loretta’s books’ cover model, Alan, however. Channing Tatum plays him the way you’d expect: the incredibly sexy but humble “himbo.” Unlike Bullock, Tatum retains his charm in meeting viewers’ expectations. He’s not the warrior depicted in the books, but his devotion to Loretta makes viewers tingle. Much like insipid romance novels, the sexy hero of this story is its only appeal.
“The Lost City’s” villain, Abigail Fairfax, is a billionaire determined to find a lost treasure to prove himself to his family. Apparently he is jealous of his brother, but this motivation is underdeveloped and leaves Fairfax’s goal feeling low stakes.
Fairfax is described in the synopsis as “eccentric.” Daniel Radcliffe, who plays the villain, interprets that eccentricity is just angrily flexing all the muscles in the face and neck.
There is nothing remarkable to say about the filmmaking itself. The use of a green screen felt constant and obvious, which is unfortunate. A movie that can afford to book actors like Tatum, Bullock and even Brad Pitt, should be capable of hiking its film crew up a hill in Kauai for the shot.
It almost feels as if the film was purposely cheapened to reflect the romance novels featured in the story. “The Lost City” could have played with the idea of ambiguity a bit more; it was a missed opportunity to not make viewers question if this adventure was real or if it was just another of Loretta’s novels, but with a more self-aware tone. This could have excused the emptiness, or at least given it purpose.
“The Lost City” is for those seeking a light comedy through which they can fantasize about being rescued by Channing Tatum.
Kelsey Percival is the editorial assistant for The Durango Herald and an avowed cinephile. Reach her at kpercival@durangoherald.com.