This movie is so good it almost entirely overcomes its basic weakness.
Lost tells the story of Jeremy Stanton (Dean Cain), a man who finds himself on the road from California to Nevada. Unable to take the straight and easy path to a place called Red Ridge due to storms and flooding rendering the main roads impassable, Jeremy finds himself wandering the back roads and forgotten trails with only an inaccurate map and the thoroughly unhelpful directions over his cell phone of Judy (Ashley Scott), a woman who works for this movie's version of AAA. That could very easily be the premise of a road comedy, except there's a bag of money in the trunk of Jeremy's rental car and a vicious killer named Archer (Danny Trejo) chasing after him.
You might not expect too much of a film that's just an hour and a half of Dean Cain driving around the desert and talking on a cell phone, but you'll be pleasantly surprised if you give Lost a gander. This film has many strengths and only one real flaw.
Dean Cain gives a good performance made even better by the normality of it. Jeremy Stanton is a man stuck in the desert, alone and unable to get where he needs to go, with a murderer lurking in his rear view mirror. Most actors in that sort of tale will start out chewing the scenery and end up vomiting it back at you. They'd give you a performance full of every overwrought emotion they can. Cain avoids that temptation and gives us a real Jeremy, who doesn't fall to pieces or morph into some movie cliché "man driven beyond his limits". Cain's Jeremy feels frustration and anger and anxiety but when things go wrong, he puts his head down and keeps on going like many people do in tough spots. Cain doesn't give you the performance you'd expect in this sort of film, and he's able to carry on his back almost the entire movie.
Lost is also a very quick moving story and even when Jeremy is just driving around in circles, there's something going on. But it's not repetitive and the film doesn't just jog in place waiting to unleash this "twist" or that "shock" on the audience. Flashes of Jeremy's memories play out along his travels, memories relating to the terrible situation he got himself in and to the man he is. The car radio also joins the voices on his cell phone as another character in the story, through news reports, talk show snippets and even a motivational tape that Jeremy plays to keep his spirits up. The script also deserves credit for trying to explain things to the viewer, instead of just relying on them not thinking too hard about what is happening. Many films abuse the suspension of disbelief to cover up for plot developments or characterizations that don't make any sense. Lost works fairly hard at making sure things make enough sense that you can pay attention to the story and not have to make excuses for it.
Lost does have a weakness, however, and it's a pretty big one. As fine a performance as Cain's is and as smart at the writing is, it's still not much more than an hour and a half of a guy driving through the desert and talking on his cell phone. Oh, there are moments of action and suspense and humor and I suppose the movie deserves credit for not injecting a bunch of contrived and unrealistic developments into the plot out of fear it can't hold the audience's attention. For all that though, it really is an hour and a half of a guy driving through the desert and talking on his cell phone. It held my attention, but that might not be your cup of tea.
Lost is a little gem of a movie. Not a diamond, to be sure, but it's not cubic zirconium either. It's an emerald, or maybe a sapphire. Some folks can appreciate the beauty of those stones and some folks just look at them and wonder why they aren't diamonds. But if every piece of jewelry was a diamond, think how boring that would be.
Lost tells the story of Jeremy Stanton (Dean Cain), a man who finds himself on the road from California to Nevada. Unable to take the straight and easy path to a place called Red Ridge due to storms and flooding rendering the main roads impassable, Jeremy finds himself wandering the back roads and forgotten trails with only an inaccurate map and the thoroughly unhelpful directions over his cell phone of Judy (Ashley Scott), a woman who works for this movie's version of AAA. That could very easily be the premise of a road comedy, except there's a bag of money in the trunk of Jeremy's rental car and a vicious killer named Archer (Danny Trejo) chasing after him.
You might not expect too much of a film that's just an hour and a half of Dean Cain driving around the desert and talking on a cell phone, but you'll be pleasantly surprised if you give Lost a gander. This film has many strengths and only one real flaw.
Dean Cain gives a good performance made even better by the normality of it. Jeremy Stanton is a man stuck in the desert, alone and unable to get where he needs to go, with a murderer lurking in his rear view mirror. Most actors in that sort of tale will start out chewing the scenery and end up vomiting it back at you. They'd give you a performance full of every overwrought emotion they can. Cain avoids that temptation and gives us a real Jeremy, who doesn't fall to pieces or morph into some movie cliché "man driven beyond his limits". Cain's Jeremy feels frustration and anger and anxiety but when things go wrong, he puts his head down and keeps on going like many people do in tough spots. Cain doesn't give you the performance you'd expect in this sort of film, and he's able to carry on his back almost the entire movie.
Lost is also a very quick moving story and even when Jeremy is just driving around in circles, there's something going on. But it's not repetitive and the film doesn't just jog in place waiting to unleash this "twist" or that "shock" on the audience. Flashes of Jeremy's memories play out along his travels, memories relating to the terrible situation he got himself in and to the man he is. The car radio also joins the voices on his cell phone as another character in the story, through news reports, talk show snippets and even a motivational tape that Jeremy plays to keep his spirits up. The script also deserves credit for trying to explain things to the viewer, instead of just relying on them not thinking too hard about what is happening. Many films abuse the suspension of disbelief to cover up for plot developments or characterizations that don't make any sense. Lost works fairly hard at making sure things make enough sense that you can pay attention to the story and not have to make excuses for it.
Lost does have a weakness, however, and it's a pretty big one. As fine a performance as Cain's is and as smart at the writing is, it's still not much more than an hour and a half of a guy driving through the desert and talking on his cell phone. Oh, there are moments of action and suspense and humor and I suppose the movie deserves credit for not injecting a bunch of contrived and unrealistic developments into the plot out of fear it can't hold the audience's attention. For all that though, it really is an hour and a half of a guy driving through the desert and talking on his cell phone. It held my attention, but that might not be your cup of tea.
Lost is a little gem of a movie. Not a diamond, to be sure, but it's not cubic zirconium either. It's an emerald, or maybe a sapphire. Some folks can appreciate the beauty of those stones and some folks just look at them and wonder why they aren't diamonds. But if every piece of jewelry was a diamond, think how boring that would be.