The Lost City Review

We can all agree that most romantic-comedies have begun to just repeat tired tropes; 'The Lost City' thankfully reminds us that there is still hope for this genre.

I walked into this movie with low expectations, I figured I could at least spend two hours appreciating Channing Tatum's 50 abs. I walked out grabbing people in line begging them to see this movie because I was so wrong.

Spoilers Ahead.

Sandra Bullock plays a writer who is tired of writing romance novels and still heartbroken over the death of her husband five years earlier. She goes on a book tour with the cover model for her books (Channing Tatum), who she clearly detests but he tries his best to get her excited about their tour.

They have a fight after she an interview where she announces the death of the character he models for each cover. She storms off, Tatum follows her and sees her get kidnapped.

Bullock meets Daniel Radcliffe who is fascinated that the historical elements in her book are real since she researched the Spanish Colonization of the Caribbean islands in College with her husband. She can actually translate the dead language the tribe created which is why he wants her to go with him to find the Crown of Fire that was owned by the King of this tribe. When she refuses, he drugs her and kidnaps her. Again.

Tatum manages to track her through her smartwatch and their adventure truly begins as they hike through the jungle to evade the capture by the increasingly unstable Radcliffe.

Tatum and Bullock have a very interesting arc to their relationship. At first, she is very clearly annoyed by his existence let alone his participation in the book tour. She thinks he's there just to rip his shirt off and show-off to all the fans of her books. Tatum's character however seems to adore her from a distance, he steers questions that are aimed at him to her, he wants her to have fun and live life, and he knows her a lot more than she realizes.

There's a couple of wonderful scenes they share but my personal favorites are the night after Bullock's rescued and they're camping in the jungle.

First, at the campsite they've built, Bullock treats Tatum's back with face masks when he has a reaction to the water that they waded through to escape thugs. It's laced with a subtle sexual tension, she talks about how she'd write this scene with the characters from her books while gently rubbing his bare back. It's very romantic but still goofy and light hearted.

The next morning, they fight about an artifact she stole from Radcliffe to find the location of the Crown of Fire. She tells him that it's none of his business and he didn't even belong there because she picked him randomly for her first book cover when her publisher made her alter her book on archaeology of Spanish Colonization into a cheap romance book and she didn't expect to be stuck with him for that long. She basically calls him a vapid low-rung model who only cares about her book because it's the only thing he has going in his life.

He tells her that he thought being a model would take him around the world and that he was so embarrassed to debase himself to be on the cover of a romance novel that he avoided people he knew for months just in case they saw him on the cover. Then he says how people started recognizing him and were so genuinely happy to meet him.

"How can I be embarrassed about something that makes so many people happy?"

Then he tells her how she shouldn't treat her own books like their trash because they deserve more, they genuinely love her work. IF Bullock doesn't want to write any more books, that's fine with him, he just wants her to be happy and not treat her fans with disrespect.

To be honest, that resonated with me because like many people, I don't treat the romance book genre with a lot of respect. Why? I was taught that it wasn't 'real writing' because it's basically smut with little to no plotline. And so what if it is? I shouldn't judge people because they love romance novels, there should be no shame in reading in any aspect.

While this movie feels like a remake of 'Romancing the Stone' with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, it stands on its own.

It is genuinely a breath of fresh air, with a few twists that keep it interesting, a playful Tatum, an intelligent and fiercely independent Bullock, and a borderline psychotic Radcliffe; the characters alone provide an epic story.

While it's not a great film, it probably won't be up for any substantial Academy Awards, it's fun and thrilling. It's a simple romance on a turbulent adventure with a lot of jokes in between.