'The Lost Bus' review: Matthew McConaughey pulls out all the stops to save everyone

Apple Original Films

Honk if you're in danger. Kevin McKay, Matthew McConaughey's character in The Lost Bus, might do exactly that, considering the extraordinary situation he's thrust into. Based on a "true story" told in Lizzie Johnson's nonfiction book 'Paradise: One Town's Struggle To Survive An American Wildfire', Kevin is your regular ol' school bus driver in California's Butte County in 2018. If a divorce, a son (Levi McConaughey as Shaun) that detests him, an ailing mom (Kay McCabe McConaughey as Sherry) and a job that doesn't pay super well weren't enough trouble for him, his day will get much, much worse when a large-scale wildfire breaks out in the city of Paradise. Kevin responds to a call to pick up 22 kids in order to evacuate them, but soon enough, he and teacher Mary Ludwig (America Ferrera) must keep everyone safe and find a way out of the uncontrolled fires when all hell breaks loose.

Your alarm might go off initially and therefore you might want to evacuate yourself because the opening could be described as a dumpster fire. Written by Brad Ingelsby and Paul Greengrass, who also directs, it is genuinely perplexing how the first 30 minutes made it through script approval, principal photography, editing phase and screenings. The dialogue is absolutely brutal to listen to, the performances of the entire McConaughey family are rather poor and the flat characterisations—which are a problem throughout the movie—don't really draw you into the characters' lives. It's a real missed opportunity when your story revolves around blue-collar workers and real-life heroes, like bus drivers, teachers and firefighters, but barely any of them feel like real people because of shoddy screenwriting. Kevin's co-worker, dispatcher Ruby Bishop (Ashlie Atkinson) might be the only one, which isn't a great sign considering her billing.

Some sparks begin to emerge when we move away from characters' personal lives and Matthew McConaughey's overacting, and towards the inferno and life-or-death stakes. Greengrass and cinematographer Pål Ulvik Rokseth's visual language is still just as nauseating as it has always been, but once the heat gets turned up, the film is quite effective as a disaster thriller. This is a very difficult story to translate onto the silver screen so we'll excuse a few fully CG shots. Aside from those, the combination of splendid VFX (supervised by Charlie Noble) and SFX as well as David Crank's production design helps to create a suffocating, blood-tingling atmosphere. Add excellent sound design and mixing that help to sell the chaos and the scale of this destruction, and the second half of this movie truly sings at times. Even Greengrass' intrusive style enhances parts of it when Kevin, Mary and the kids are in a nearly hopeless situation.

While there are truly thrilling and stirring moments in that second half, this sort of story should be a slam dunk for one of the most heart-wrenching rides of the year. Sadly, the writing and acting aren't up to the job. What we're left with is ultimately a major letdown and several questions about the state of penmanship in Hollywood productions. The Lost Bus should be so much better. We're not mad, we're simply disappointed.

Smileys: VFX, sound design

Frowneys: Dialogue, characterisation, screenplay

Kevin was in the hot seat and not just when talking to his ex.

2.5/5

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