So, it occurred to me at I watched The Lost City that one of my complaints (among my many, many complaints) for Deep Water was the age difference between two of the fictional married couples in the movie. One I could maybe overlook as typical, but two? That seemed a bit much. But here, for The Lost City, there’s a romance between Sandra Bullock, in her mid fifties, and Channing Tatum, in his early forties. That’s close to the age gap I saw in the crap Hulu movie, so seeing it with an older woman and a younger man was something of a nice change of pace.
Besides, both Bullock and Tatum look pretty good at their respective ages, and I had to open with something. What else was I going to do? Say how I am not sure how I feel about Sandra Bullock movies in general?
Romance novelist Loretta Sage (Bullock) is in a deep funk, five years after the death of her archaeologist husband. She barely has the creative energy to finish the latest in her popular novel series, and she really doesn’t want to go on the required book tour, especially when she learns, since she’s never been particularly good at these things, that she is going to be paired with her seemingly vacuous cover model Alan (Tatum). Alan means well, but he doesn’t seem to understand he really isn’t the hero from her novels to listen to him talk. However, Loretta’s own background in archaeology and general interest in more academic subjects, something that gets her in trouble at times on tour, means she may have inadvertently suggested she may be instrumental to the location of a lost crown from an ancient island nation. That’s enough for spoiled billionaire Abigail Farifax (Daniel Radcliffe) to kidnap Loretta and try to force her assistance in finding the artifact in question. Alan, anxious to prove he is capable, then follows the official rescuer (Brad Pitt in a small role) in an attempt to get Loretta back. Circumstances being what they are, soon both Alan and Loretta are lost in the jungle, trying to get away alive and maybe find the crown before Fairfax finds them.
Meanwhile, Loretta’s publicist Beth (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) will take matters into her own hands to retrieve her author and cover model. Fairfax really wants that crown, and the idea that a novelist might not know where it is, if it even exists, is a bit beyond the pale. Fortunately, both Loretta and Alan have some untapped skills that may come in handy yet if the pair wish to get out of this mess alive.
Honestly, this is a fun, lightweight sort of movie. Bullock and Tatum are both charming in their respective roles, and there’s the right amount of bickering going on that, sure, in a movie like this will lead to a romance like something out of Loretta’s novels, but these two people aren’t really equipped for this sort of adventure, and only one of them is really aware of that fact. Yes, Alan is deeper than he appears, and Loretta actually knows a couple things herself given her background, but that doesn’t mean the two of them are going to have an easy time of it. Meanwhile, Radcliffe is quite good in the villain role as a young man who is the right blend of childish and arrogant, working as he is under the assumption that he can take what he wants just because he has a lot of money. And though he isn’t in the movie all that much, Pitt’s character seems mostly like the very sort of character Loretta writes about and that Alan only pretends to be in the flesh.
Now, it’s nothing deep or anything like that, and I wouldn’t say I laughed out loud for any of the movie’s run time, but it was fun. Fun is all some movies need to be, and much like the novels Loretta writes, it’s a light, fluffy story with a bit of romance that’s simply designed to give the audience some light pleasure. As far as that goes, the movie succeeds, and that’s all it needed to do.
Grade: B
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