When the initial premise for The Lost City (then called The Lost City of D) first started making the online rounds, comparisons to another adventure movie of yore were probably inevitable. A romance novelist, stranded on a mysterious island and at the mercy of the elements, finds her own love story while in the process of fighting for survival and to make it out of the jungle alive — and, at the same time, the inspiration behind her next bestselling book. But, fortunately for the latest action-comedy with romantic leanings starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, The Lost City is more than just Romancing the Stone redux. Although it may not necessarily invent the wheel of filmmaking, it accomplishes just about everything else it sets out to do in the vein of simply being a fun popcorn flick, as well as treating all the genre spheres it falls into with an encouraging level of respect, albeit with the occasional gentle tongue-in-cheek joke.
Loretta Sage (Bullock) — and no, that's actually not her author pen name — has been feeling disillusioned with her work as of late. Thanks to the wild success of her book series, she's earned a legion of devoted fans who are avid for the latest installment, The Lost City of D, in which the intrepid lead character Lovemore, accompanied by main hero Dash, has set out to find a legendary treasure enclosed inside a long-lost tomb. After Loretta practically phones in the ending of the book and cuts the plot off just shy of any HEA (a decision that would have most romance readers rioting in the streets), her publicist Beth (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) organizes a last-minute tour for her to try and regain some of her audience's goodwill, on which she'll be accompanied by the cover model who's been portraying Dash since the release of her very first novel, Alan Caprison (Tatum). Loretta, who partially resents Alan for eclipsing her in popularity, is prepared to grin and bear it through their shared appearances — until she's kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire named Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe), who believes he's uncovered the titular Lost City around which her novel is set and wants her to help him find the location of its hidden tomb. Alan, who witnesses her abduction firsthand, decides that he'll be the one to set off and rescue her himself, with the aim of proving to Loretta that he's more than just a romance avatar wearing a fake blonde wig.
If any part of this story sounds appealing thus far, the plot only becomes wilder from that point on. Bullock, who has made a name for herself in the rom-com genre in addition to several others, immediately launches into her talent for physical comedy. An early scene, in which Loretta is forced into a gaudy pink glitter jumpsuit for the first leg of her book tour and struggles to sit down on a tall backless stool, establishes the baseline for just how far the actress is willing to go (and the degree to which she's willing to contort her body) in the name of humor. Later, once Loretta has to traipse through the jungle wearing the same exact outfit, the film at least has the sense to concoct an excuse for her to get out of her high heels and don a better choice of footwear — but by the end of the adventure, the jumpsuit definitely hasn't held up under the same survival conditions.
Tatum, meanwhile, has seemingly cornered the market on playing the himbo with a heart of gold — and is very visibly willing to make himself the butt (pun intended) of many jokes before endearing himself to the audience with deeper notes of sincerity. During a later conversation in the heart of the wilderness, in which Loretta divulges to him that she only turned to writing schlocky romance novels because she couldn't sell anything about anthropology, Alan's first response is to relay an anecdote of his own about what happened after he posed for the cover of her first romance novel. By his own admission, he was so embarrassed he didn't mention it to anyone in his life for months — until a fan recognized him in the street, and he realized that those books were the source of happiness for others. Alan chides Loretta then, rightfully, by telling her not to diminish her fans by referring to what she writes as "schlock." It's a scene that brings Loretta greater awareness of the man she's been fighting to survive with, but, at the same time, it also does something that not enough big-budget, star-driven Hollywood projects have: recognizing the worth of the romance genre, and not just in a moneymaking sense.
Speaking of romance, The Lost City definitely manages to pepper in the kind of tropes that those of us who grew up on or only just started reading kissing books will recognize immediately. A quiet fireside conversation with one person tending to the other's injuries, followed by the realization that there's only one makeshift hammock available to share between the two of them, plays through the classic conceit of bed-sharing, with both actors laughing in a way that doesn't seem feigned for the scene in the slightest. Once again, Bullock manages to wring every comedic drop out of the act of both getting in and out of a sleeping bag hung between two trees, but the latter only happens after Loretta wakes up to find herself nicely snuggled up against Alan, the two having cozied up sometime in the middle of the night after initially falling asleep facing the opposite direction. There's also the delightful enemies-to-lovers element — even though it reads very strongly as if Loretta and Alan's antagonistic feelings are mostly one-sided, the author finds herself gradually warming more and more to her unexpected companion, especially in the scenes when Alan uses endearingly sneaky breathing tactics in order to help her combat her spikes of anxiety.
With a rollicking adventure like this one, an over-the-top bad guy is a must, and Radcliffe delivers the exact amount of mustache-twirling required to make Abigail both comical and unsettling. In his post-Potter career, these types of delightfully unexpected wildcard roles are where his acting strengths thrive, and anything that allows him to make an utter meal of the scenery means that there are moments in the film when Bullock and Tatum look more like the straight man by comparison. As the story progresses, Radcliffe's depiction of Abigail as a calm, collected billionaire with everything under control slowly starts to devolve when his plan to recover this hidden treasure goes awry, turning him into a sneering, biting, near-frothing pillar of hysterical emotion when he realizes that he might not get what he wants in the end after all. Another distinct standout among the supporting cast comes in a not-so-surprise turn (though maybe it would have been better if preserved as a secret before the film's release) from Brad Pitt, who plays an ex-Navy SEAL and Alan's former meditation trainer called (what else) Jack Trainer. His is an appearance that definitely livens up the movie from a pure action-stunt perspective, with Jack methodically picking off bad guys one-by-one as he leads Alan into the compound to help rescue Loretta from Abigail's clutches, but it's a role that almost seems to go on for too long to be considered a mere cameo.
In a movie landscape dominated by superhero projects that are all somehow linked to each other, settling in to watch The Lost City — which doesn't demand anything of its audience other than to sit back and enjoy the show — feels almost like a novel experience. There are no previous films to catch up on, no complicated backstory that you have to be familiar with, and most of the plot elements introduced are simple to follow, but that's what makes this specific adventure so appealing. Bullock and Tatum don't just have the names, but the implicit understanding of exactly what they need to bring to the table, to make The Lost City work, and as far as films holding the romance genre primarily in esteem is concerned, well, it's never a bad thing to have one more of the good ones out there in the world. (Although for a movie based around someone who writes kissing books, one wonders if it couldn't have had just a little more kissing.)
Rating: B
The Lost City is set to hit theaters on March 24.