User reviews

How I Got Lost, a low-key look at how two friends move on in the wake of personal difficulties, is well meaning but slow moving, and its ending won't appeal to everyone. Set against a backdrop of post-September 11 New York City, the movie follows two lifelong friends – one who's compartmentalizing his life, taking few chances, and one who's lashing out and acting out, each in the funk of a sustained mental freefall.

Jake (Jacob Fishel) is an aspiring novelist whose career as a sportswriter is creeping along; he's the one who's been recently dumped by a "free-spirited" (read: independently selfish) beauty who appears to manipulate Jake at every turn, for her own gain. Andrew (Aaron Stanford) is reacting to his own professional demise (he's just been fired) by drinking heavily.

It may seem that these two are bound to embark on a wacky road trip wherein they metaphorically find themselves, and that's half of what happens next; they do take off in the middle of the night – at Andrew's behest – with no particular destination in mind, but no zany escapades ensue. Instead, we learn – not really a spoiler – that Andrew's estranged dad has just passed away, and they're actually on their way to the funeral.

Once they get to the town in which Andrew's dad lived, each friend reacts to adversity somewhat differently; one decides to stay and help with the funeral arrangements, and one does not. Thrown into the mix is a pretty waitress named Leslie (Rosemarie DeWitt of "The United States of Tara") who – somewhat abruptly – falls for one of the guys.

Slice-of-life character studies can be difficult to talk about, because they're even more subjective than most movies. For me, How I Got Lost was slow without much of a payoff at the end. Or in the middle, for that matter; for the most part, the movie felt like it was drifting as aimlessly as its characters. Jacob is likable and does the right thing, and Andrew is somewhat less likable and hardly ever does the right thing. Both are believable characters, and their chemistry – and that of Fishel and Stanford – was palpable.

But I think the movie lacked a real hook to get me to care much about the characters beyond the superficiality of "I hope they wind up happy." The characters themselves were generic (a straight man, an obnoxious drunk), and although it was clear they were good pals, they never really resonated beyond those broad definitions. Add that to the methodical pacing of the movie, and I became bored pretty quickly.

Your mileage may vary, but I found How I Got Lost – although a serious look at dealing with pain and grief – to be a little to stuffy and downbeat. Without a lighter yin to its desolate yang, the movie just stumbles along like a college student awakening the morning after pulling an all nighter, with senses dulled and motor skills only slightly functionable.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, longtime best friends Andrew and Jake (Aaron Stanford and Jacob Fishel) are facing both professional and personal problems. Andrew's career on Wall Street has just sputtered out and Jake's stuck in a dead-end job while unable to start the novel he dreamed of writing. Their personal lives are also floundering, with Jake being strung along by a beautiful and free-spirited but selfish woman, while Andrew is faced with the death of his father, whom he was estranged from. A good premise, no doubt about that. So when Andrew decides to suddenly skip town, Jake accompanies him against his better judgment. At that point, the script seems at a loss as to what to do and the story just drifts and largely goes nowhere. After some very mild misadventures, they wind up in Andrew's home town. This was based on a short film and it appears the screenwriter struggled to find enough filler material to pad it out to feature length. Some of the dialog is perceptive, but not enough of it is. Andrew's character (very well-played by Stanford) is exasperating, as well. There are also some good scenes, especially one that takes place on a subway, but more of them seem to be just stuck there, and the story turns out to be as devoid of purpose as the characters. "How I Got Lost" is not a bad try and the cinematography is beautiful, but it never gives the audience enough to care about.

(2009) How I Got Lost DRAMA

Written and directed by Joe Leonard directing the movie "How I Got Lost", which I have to say I got lost just by watching this, since the film can't really decide which person the film is really about. At the beginning, the movie focuses on Andrew (Aaron Stanford), as we see him get out of jail for doing something- I suspect for disorderly conduct. And it just happens that his best friend Jake (Jacob Fishel) paid for his bail. They're both a couple of New Yorkers, and are somehow been affected by the events of 9/11, since Andrew who's involved in stock trading, but he often drinks a lot, while Jake whose a sports writer is trying to have a serious relationship with a girl he had met after the attacks, her name is Katie played by Jill Frutkin. Once Andrew get a call informing him that his dad had just died, he then drags his best friend Jake to come along with him instead of telling him the reason why they're going on a road trip, to a small town in Ohio. Once Andrew gets their for his dad's memorial service, he then throws a fit complaining about how they should've called him to inform him that his dad is dying, even though he initially said that he doesn't get along with his dad in the first place. Like does this make any sense, like if someone really cared, wouldn't the son himself call up his dad himself. Why make this burden as someone else's responsibility. Jake on the other hand, meets up with a single mom Leslie (Rosemarie DeWitt) who works at the town's diner, raising her own child who looks no more than a few months old, all by herself with no sight of the father whatsoever. Leslie eventually hooks up with Jake for a one-nighter even though he's committed to Katie back at New York and still gets angry after he finds out that she cheated on him with his best friend. God...this whole movie is baffling. It's like watching the worst drama variation of a Matt Damon and Ben Affleck relationship unfolding before your very eyes, since the movie has 'zero' clarification on the characters actions. Although, theirs many scenes of subtle, it can only carry the movie for so much.