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.

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.

What a great technical achievement this film was. One camera. One shot. Great sound (mostly). Fantastic theatrical performances throughout. Considering it was way past my bed time, I never once took my eyes off the screen, just watching in disbelief that this was all actually happening NOW in and about the London streets outside this cinema, in the very early hours of a cold Friday morning. There were some laugh out loud parts. Some rather black moments. And some cringe- worthy. But all good entertainment. Unless the cast hadn't pointed out a few problems in the Q&A afterwards I wouldn't have noticed them. As a live event it was spectacular. We'll just have to wait and see how it stands up as a film in its own right.

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

I didn't know this was a "one shot" live movie. For what it is, it's well executed and deserving of praise, however, it falls short if you expect it to stand its own ground. Maybe if we were rating single take live films, this could be an 8,9 or 10.

The dialogue is painfully intense, there is hardly any space to breathe. Camera is shaky, sometimes blurry... Some of the jokes are witty but they are few and far in between. Also you cannot really laugh as you are trying to understand what the heck is going on and what everyone is talking about. The British accents don't help. Overall interesting try but dont be fooled by the positive reviews, this will eventually become a 5 start movie on IMDB