Few things are more disappointing than a film with a fun premise, a great cast …and a terrible script. Enter The Lost City.
On paper, this film sounds so fun. The pitch meeting probably went something like this: let’s do Raiders of the Lost Ark but make it a rom-com featuring two charismatic stars, say Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. Let’s throw in Daniel Radcliffe hamming it up as the villain and a cheeky Brad Pitt cameo for good measure. Excellent! Cut, print, check the gate.
There’s also great character work built into the premise: Loretta Sage (Bullock), is a linguist/scholar-turned-adventure romance novelist who detests her own work, and, five years after her archeologist husband died, struggles to churn out what she considers ‘schlock.’ This feeling is personified in Alan (Tatum), her novels’ cover model who outwardly bathes in the glow of his fans’ adoration while inwardly longing for Loretta’s validation.
The set-up is good, too: After the release of Loretta’s newest book, The Lost City of D, Abigail Fairfax (Radcliffe), an eccentric billionaire with a penchant for ancient collectibles, kidnaps Loretta and whisks her away to a remote island. As it so happens, as a plot point in her book, Loretta decoded an ancient cuneiform language, and Fairfax believes she is the only one who can lead him to the island’s long-lost treasure. Meanwhile, Alan sets off to save her, hoping to prove he’s just as valuable as his fictional counterpart, and hijinks ensue.
Disappointingly, the script took all these wonderful elements and produced what must come close to the worst possible outcome.
For the rest of the review, which originally ran in the March 30, 2022, print edition of The Martin City Telegraph, head over to Telegraph’s site.
