Lost in London

Harrelson directs and stars in this experimental film where the whole thing was shot live in one night and screened into cinemas. The story, such as it is, features Harrelson playing 'himself' falling out with his wife and get into various mishaps as he tries to get back to her.

As a film, it's pretty slight, although Harrelson is very good as the witty, lost, selfish and naive film star lost in the big city. There are some fun scenes and some dull bits - Harrelson's row with Owen Wilson where they rip each other's films apart is wonderful. All this though takes a back seat to appreciating the quite incredible skills in pulling this together, as far as I can tell, without a mistake, whilst keeping pace and solid performances going.

If this were viewed Live, my reaction might be a little different. This is a single camera project that is nothing new to anything genre, and although the imagery flowed there were a few awkward moments with the characters. I kept expecting James Corden to pop up to do a Carpool Karaoke scene-actually, this film could have been condensed into a James Corden Carpool Karaoke video.

Premiering via a live broadcast as it happened/was filmed way back in 2017, Woody Harrelson's ambitious directional debut Lost in London is now available to rent through YouTube here in Australia and deciding whether or not its worth your time will depend purely on what you are watching it for, for as a narrative film this is a film lacking in much goodness but as a unique experience and technical feat its highly commendable.

Based in parts around Harrelson's own experiences in the early 2000's, Lost sees the well-liked actor facing pressure in his personal life after a series of wrong decisions leads him to be appearing in tabloid publications across the nation and battling to ensure he doesn't lose all he holds dear in his life.

Filmed astoundingly in one take by Harrelson's D.O.P Nigel Willoughby and at the time screened live as it was being shot, with Harrelson looking to merge the cinematic and theatrical in a combined package, Lost constantly impresses as you witness the craft and care that must have gone into getting the film to a reality but you can't help but feel the very bare bones story and only mildly funny material at hand needed some more refinement to make Lost a truly well-rounded feature.

Always likable, Harrelson is his typically game self and has a lot of fun bantering with the likes of Owen Wilson and singing Cheers theme songs to confused security guards on his way around London this fateful night but the core storyline and delivery of some supposedly comedic moments like a U2 loving cop or an Arabian prince whose a big fan of Woody's never really gel together and you get a feeling that if the film had been delivered in a typical production sense jokes would've landed smoother and more time could've been given to areas that would've smoothed the boring components of the film out.

As it stands, Lost is an impressive feat in so many ways and its great to see the likes of Harrelson jump behind the camera and try for something special straight off the bat but Lost is only ever moderately entertaining as its generic and so-so story goes through the motions.

Final Say -

A must-watch for Woody fans and a nice novelty feature in conception and delivery, Lost in London is let down by mid-tier material and a mostly unengaging plot.

2 1/2 Bono phone calls out of 5

Woody Harrelson comes off the stage in another mediocre London West End theatre production. Over the course of the evening his marriage to his wife (Eleanor Satsuura) breaks down due to an indisctrion which makes its way to the front page of a tabloid, but after an apparent fight with friend Owen Wilson he leaves a nightclub and gets into an altercation with a taxi driver that lands him in jail.

A piece of experiemental cinema whereby the film was shot in real time and streamed to a live cinema audience in the USA and then the UK on the 19th January 2017. The idea is incredibly bold and well executed with some aspects of the film working very well, others less so. Modern technology and smaller GoPro type cameras have allowed for this type of film to be executed, but it is also well choreographed. For this alone, Harrelson should be praised.

If you have any basic knowledge of film making, acting, lighting, sound engineering and broadcasting, after watching this film you might agree it was an incredible achievement given the limited budget and schedule and all the obstacles and circumstances in which it was put together. When judging all the elements in the film, but particularly acting, it is fair to consider the EXTREME emotional and physical endurance all the actors and crew needed in order to materialize this (crazy) project, specially Woody who also served as director and, as he later explained during the QA session at the end of the movie, couldn't stop thinking about all the details while the camera was rolling. Remember, this movie was broadcast LIVE in one camera shot with no opportunity for screwing up, with the constant threat of technical glitches in sound (150 microphones) and video streaming, bad timing of actors and scenes, falls (the cameraman was running up and down staircases and other obstacles) and even bad weather, given that in London it can rain at any time and great part of the movie was shot outdoors. If you factor all these elements in, then Woody's performance was Academy Award ( or Tony? or both? ) winner. So for this reason, I am giving this movie a solid 10. What Woody and the rest of the crew have achieved is short of impossible. The plot and dialogues were good and entertaining, not a deep and thoughtful story, just a fun and silly comedy based on Woody's mostly-true recount of an awkward night in London. If you didn't have the opportunity to watch it live and would like to watch it now, please do so with an open mind and remember, this was an experimental project with incredible odds of not going well at all, and yet somehow it did!.