On my birthday last Monday, my friends and I traversed through the rugged streets of Pekin, navigated our way through the formidable and swampy AMC parking lot and scaled our way up to our seats to watch “The Lost City.”
The film — starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe and Brad Pitt — follows Bullock’s character, a widowed romance novelist named Loretta, as she tries to navigate the world without her husband.
Alan (Tatum), the wannabe love interest, is a cover model for Loretta who just can’t seem to get into her good graces. After a crazed media mogul (Radcliffe) kidnaps Loretta so that she can translate an ancient language and unlock a secret treasure in a Pacific rainforest, Alan enlists the help of an old personal trainer (Pitt) to help rescue her and win her hand.
After a shocking turn of events, Alan is left as the sole (and mostly incapable) rescuer, and he and Loretta are forced to survive the jungle and escape the clutches of their greedy and relentless enemies.
Along the way, there are plenty of laughs, heartfelt moments and sickeningly sweet (but mostly sickening) romantic moments.
Needless to say, the romantic development was rushed and highly unrealistic, with tropes taken straight out of a 13-year-old’s enemies-to-lovers fanfiction. It presents no new twist to the romantic comedy genre, and the chemistry between Tatum and Bullock is far from palpable.
At the end of the day, though, this film was never trying to be good. It just tried to be the best at what it set out to do: give us a cheesy romance movie. Is this the best use of a star-studded cast’s talent? No. But does it seem like the entire cast enjoyed filming this? Yes.
Sometimes, it’s okay to enjoy a movie with very little screenwriting tact, as long as it’s self-aware. This movie was fun, light-hearted and a great distraction from the woes of real life. Laughter certainly filled the entirety of the theater I was in, despite there only being nine patrons there.
While I don’t recommend “The Lost City” to the extreme cinephile, it is an excellent choice for your average rom-com enthusiast.
