The Lost City (2022) Review

“My father was a weatherman”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When you go through an adventure, you may have fun but you never expect to find love as well.

PLOT


The Lost City follows Loretta Sage, a research astronomer that has turned to writing romance-adventure novels after the death of her husband. Her publisher Beth Hatten books her to do a tour for her latest book, but she doesn’t like having cover model Alan Caprison attend as the series’ lead Dash McMahon, due to his presence overshadowing her intellect. With the beginning of the tour going un-swell due to fans being obsessed with Alan’s persona of Dash, Loretta gets abducted by billionaire Abigail Fairfax who wants her to find the priceless Crown of Fire that belonged to Queen Taha & King Kalaman, which he believes to be in a remote volcanic island called Isla Hundida. He picks her because he knows her books were partially based on her research, hence wanting her to also decipher a clue to the treasure. When she refuses, he quickly decides to sedate her until arriving on the actual island. With Alan feeling enamored with Loretta, he takes the chance to rescue her once Beth reports her missing. He gets help from CIA operative Jack Trainer who successfully tracks her down with her smart watch. Trainer is able to free her from Abigail’s compound, but he gets shot in the head on the way out, resulting in her to escape into the jungle with Alan. They try driving away, only to inadvertently crash into a ravine and evade Abigail’s henchmen when swimming through a river. That part doesn’t go smooth due to leeches clinging onto Alan along the way that Loretta removes. With the police unable to go past jurisdiction to find Loretta, Beth flies to the island as well and is guided by a cargo pilot named Oscar. Alan & Loretta continue their journey through the journey and in the process, the latter finds more clues in a waterfall. They then continue avoiding Abigail’s men by climbing up a mountain. When they camp for the night, they are able to bond when Loretta learns Alan is allergic to water and that he grew up wanting to model in order to get out of his home in Sarasota and was afraid of being made fun of for being Dash until he was actually adored whenever he visited his family. When evading Fairfax again, they find a local village and recuperate there. However when hearing locals perform a folk song, Loretta deduces the crown’s hidden in a cenote. Sadly, she’d get captured by Fairfax upon realization and when Alan follows, the antagonist forces them to reveal the location. Reaching the tomb site, all discover it was a secret place for the queen to grieve her husband’s death and the crown was made of seashells were gathered by the king to show his love for her. All of this means the real treasure was their inseparable love. Disappointed, Fairfax chooses to ditch both Loretta & Alan by sealing the tomb. His main henchman Rafi (Héctor Aníbal) ends up having a change of heart and gives them a chance by leaving a crowbar for them to free themselves. He then ditches his employer on the island by taking the only boat. Loretta & Alan are able to escape by swimming through a tunnel. Just as they do, Beth & Oscar arrive with the local coast guard to save them and arrest Fairfax. Some time later, Loretta writes a new book based on her adventure with Alan who she is now dating. The film ends in a mid credit scene revealing Jack survived the shot and joins the new class in a meditation class.

THOUGHTS

Due to not seeing Romancing the Stone in advance, what many would deem the most popular rom-com adventure, I wasn’t sure what kind of tone to expect. Nevertheless, I generally had a good time with what the duo of Adam & Aaron Nee were able to create. I think the jokes were well timed because I chuckled with the majority that landed. Patti Harrison had me giggle for being way too bubbly as Loretta’s social media manager Allison. Just hearing her hash tagging Shawn Mendes without even asking if Loretta likes the popular singer gave me a smile I never anticipated. The pairing of Da’Vine Joy Randolph & Oscar Nunez was even a delight because of how they’re their own dynamic duo like the lead duo. Randolph is supportive yet meticulous as Beth when it comes to helping Sage be a success, whereas Oscar is too eccentric for his own good. The fact they found common ground in helping however is what made me smile. The biggest laugh though is Brad Pitt’s appearance as Jack Trainer. The way he is depicted as a casual badass only to be taken down so quickly to isolate the leads had me fall off my seat. That is what would then leave me hooked with the pairing of Sandra Bullock & Channing Tatum. Like I said with Beth & Oscar, they are an opposites attract relationship  that end up respecting & appreciating each other for their differences. Their chemistry is so believable that it reminded me that just because you took a bad step in life, does not mean it stop you to embrace challenges and keep living to the fullest. Bullock shows Sage as one who understandably lost her mojo after such loss and thinks being left alone would solve it. She gets interested in searching for the crown midway because she thinks her husband would’ve wanted her to do it. Finding out love is more of a treasure than a material gift was her epiphany that the precious memories of loved ones will never fade. However, she doesn’t get this moment of content without the one guy who was most compassionate. Tatum shows Alan as a down to earth yet goofy guy who may not be prepared like Jack, but is willing to help to prove he can bring more to the table than his looks. He ends up crushing on Sage because he admires the spirit she had and returns the favor by bringing that part back as he tries saving her. She ends up liking him back for seeing how big his heart was all along after spending so long making the mistake to judge a book by the cover, which is exactly what he called him out for. By the time they survived the ordeal, it goes without saying they’ll appreciate the new chapters in their lives together. Ironically, they get to become one due to a guy who didn’t care about any of their needs. Daniel Radcliffe made a solid villain out of Abigail Fairfax because he sells it in being a stingy individual. With his younger siblings being more successful than him, it drives him nuts he can’t one-up then in their fields. So his alternative is stealing treasure that they wouldn’t even think about trying and wouldn’t care how it would affect others by the time he would get what he wanted. The fact no amount of money would’ve kept Rafi from standing up to him proved you just can’t buy loyalty. Whether or not a sequel would be made and another prick like Abigail would be around, I’m sure Alan & Loretta would find some form of silver lining through whatever adventure that would come their way. This film was pretty fun to sit down to, but even fun stuff like this have their own set of issues. Like for instance, I respect how the opening wants us to understand Loretta's mindset when Beth mentions her dead husband via voicemail, but are they playing automatically or is she just listening to them on loop just to motivate her to keep writing? This confuses me more than how Beth rushes her with the deadline by booking a tour before the first manuscript is even done. And don't mind me complaining about continuity errors when Loretta's shot glass goes from empty to filled without even seeing her fill it up. Also, why would Loretta have an agent control her social media accounts when she knows she's gonna get her personality wrong. I know the said hashtags come off funny out loud and it's likely common for celebrities to have people do this, but I really doubt Loretta would let that of all things happen. That of all things would make me get a new team of booking agents. And am I the only tripped out that her panel lasted about four minutes? I know things got out of control, but this is a weird way to get to the second act. I know Abigail ain't the brightest of villains, which is common in comedies, but even he messes up by removing the gloves he wore to show off the parchment box to Loretta when originally being cautious about it. He may be rich but if he was gonna be reckless anyway, he should've not gotten the gloves at all. That is worse than him dismissing the clues Loretta later figures out on her own. We get a cool action sequence out of Jack Trainer when he attempts to save Loretta, but it's pretty confusing how it takes so long for reinforcements to come through after all the noise he makes. I was laughing my ass off over the leeches Alan & Loretta put up with, but I'm surprised how Abigail's don't go through the same obstacle. Even if they're going in a different direction, I don't think they would avoid those creatures considering how much were on Alan's body. I even giggled the protagonist duo struggle with the hammock, but why didn't Alan give it up for Loretta? I mean that would've been another clever seed to set up the relationship they would later make. It is interesting for the story to advance when one Latin lyric during a dance leads to the next clue. It honestly trips me out because it's hard to imagine how the hell would Loretta figure it out without that exact clue? I mean I would've done some text on a wall or a dresser because it sounds more random than a stranger singing. Other than that, I'm sure you'll still be finding a good time out of this. In short, The Lost City is an entertaining rom com for doing its best to spice up the adventurous feeling in everyone. You like to have that feeling? Maybe this will boost it up for you.