Lost in London (2017)

Directed by: Woody Harrelson | 95 minutes | comedy, drama | Actors: Owen Wilson, Daniel Radcliffe, Woody Harrelson, Eleanor Matsuura, Louisa Harland, Willie Nelson, Amir El-Masry, Naomi Battrick, David Avery, Martin McCann, Bono, David Mumeni, Youssef Kerkour, Peter Ferdinando, Ricky Champ, Zrinka Cvitesic

You can say a lot about Woody Harrelson, but he certainly has guts. In 2017, the actor made his debut as a director and he did so in a very unconventional way. ‘Lost in London’ (2017) was screened live in more than 500 movie theaters in the United States and one in Great Britain, Picturehouse Central in Piccadilly Circus. Imagine that you are in the cinema watching a movie that is currently being played a few blocks away. In one continuous take of one hundred minutes, with about thirty actors and hundreds of extras in fourteen locations and in four vehicles in the British capital. For a medium like film, which often requires extensive preparation, is taken extremely conscientiously and then undergoes an extensive post-production phase of editing and fine-tuning, Harrelson’s experiment can rightly be called revolutionary. In fact, the thinking and fine-tuning had to be done in advance. It probably made a difference that he based the film on his own experience; a turbulent night that he himself experienced fifteen years earlier in London, where he even ended up in prison (he once called it ‘the worst night of my life’). The film starts with the warning ‘Too much of this is true’; the tone is set. Harrelson does not take himself and his life as a Hollywood star too seriously, but his directorial debut shows an unbridled ambition despite the messy screenplay. Why else would you get into all those technically complicated situations?

We see Woody (who logically plays himself) for the first time when he says goodbye to a not-so-well-received theater performance in London. Why did he take on a dramatic role again, he asks himself, ‘this is not my thing at all’. His fans agree, as evidenced by the comments he gets (ranging from ‘I miss ‘Cheers’ to ‘When are you going to make us laugh again?’). Woody can’t lose sleep over this, as the tabloids have extensively publicized his infidelity and as a result he is at odds with his wife Laura (Eleanor Matsuura). He takes refuge in a club with his best friend Owen Wilson (playing himself). Or at least, he always thought Owen was his best friend, but Wilson blurts out that Wes Anderson will always be his number 1. This is much to the disappointment of Woody, who sneers that Anderson “hasn’t made a great movie since ‘Bottle Rocket’ – and neither have you!”. The insults fly back and forth (on Wilson in ‘Marley & Me’; “You were outplayed by a dog!”), leading to great hilarity and the undisputed pinnacle of the film. Later, Woody smashes an ashtray in a taxi (“It was a useless thing after all”), gets away with paying the taxi driver a poem for services rendered, and is lovingly addressed by country singer Willie Nelson (“the Texan Dalai Lama”) as he it all doesn’t fit anymore. Later he gets into a fight with a policeman who is not impressed by his status as an actor, and his twin brother who also does not want to give him credit. A night in the police station is the last thing he could use, because the next morning an early visit to the set of Harry Potter, and a meeting with Daniel Radcliffe, with his wife and children, is scheduled. And if Woody wants to save his marriage, he can’t miss that appointment!

Apart from the fact that ‘Lost in London’ is a technical tour de force, Harrelson also shows the audacity to make fun of himself in an unadulterated way. “Hollywood is like royalty without borders”, he says at the beginning of the film, but then we see him lowering himself to singing the theme song of ‘Cheers’ to enter a nightclub (which doesn’t get him much further, by the way). , he is made fun of by John and everyone about the films he has made (“Money Train, don’t make me laugh”) and even steals money from a disabled homeless person. Fame is fleeting and lasts until the public finds a new favorite, which is what Harrelson wants to convey. The ‘Lost in London’ screenplay is a mess, of course, which probably says a lot about Harrelson’s condition when he actually experienced this wild night in 2002. He freewheels through the hundred minutes and gets away with it too. In addition, this film is a way for him to leave his licentious, rebellious past behind him and his ultimate way to declare his love for his wife Laura. Let go of your frustrations about the lack of a decent script and immerse yourself in this cheerful piece of self-criticism not often seen in Hollywood, where most filmmakers take themselves way too seriously.