The Lost City of Z

I wasn’t familiar with British explorer Percy Fawcett before I saw The Lost City of Z. Now that I have, I’m still befuddled as to why he merits consideration.  The movie’s very existence implies that Lieutenant Colonel Percival Harrison Fawcett was a trailblazer.  The account presents a man who made a series of trips searching the uncharted Amazonian forests in search of Z, a lost civilianization. Although he mapped supposedly unexplored Brazilian territory, by white men anyway, he didn’t really accomplish much more than that. Yet the screenplay unconditionally glorifies its central hero. In short, the ambiguous movie doesn’t make it clear why this guy was important.

The Lost City of Z is based on New York journalist David Grann’s 2009 bestselling nonfiction book of the same name. Its subtitle: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, suggests nonstop excitement with charismatic individuals. This saga has neither. Charlie Hunnam looks the part of a dashing hero. He speaks his lines with clear conviction often shouting them to show passion, but he remains a vague personality. He’s joined by various companions on different expeditions. Of note are Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson), Fawcett’s trusted assistant, biologist James Murray (Angus Macfadyen) and Fawcett’s son Jack (Tom Holland), who joins his father on his last trip. I mention them because they are known actors with lines but they don’t elevate this tale. His wife Nina (Sienna Miller) is written as a burgeoning feminist with dialogue seemingly written with a 2017 audience in mind.

There is no cohesive thrust to the narrative. He travels through the rain forest, then comes back home, to the jungle again and back to England he returns. At times, he seems to magically appear in the forest and then back home again so abruptly we lose the appreciation for how difficult the journey to those destinations must have been. This occurs a few times over the course of 2 1/2 hours. In the midst of all this, we get the outbreak of World War I. The film’s taxing length is a killer. The languid middle is only debilitated further by the lack of a satisfying end. What actually transpired in real life doesn’t help, but there are certainly ways to creatively tell a story. The screenplay doesn’t pull that off.

The search for the lost city of Z took up Fawcett’s entire life. The chronicle is ostensibly about obsessive quests. Fawcett kept returning to the jungle in a repetitive fashion. But to what end?  Each meandering journey is marked by a shortage of excitement. We’re looking for inspiration but there’s nothing here to captivate the mind. Instead we get “this happened and then this happened and then this happened.” The drama is recounted with all the joy of a 7th grader reciting a book report. James Gray is a talented director I have long admired. His most seen film was We Own the Night, the 2007 crime drama starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg. I really enjoyed The Yards (2000) and The Immigrant (2014) too. This is his first piece set outside his native New York. The Lost City of Z represents a departure for the director and judging from this, it was a risk that didn’t pay off.  It looks good. Credit goes to cinematographer Darius Khondji for that. It’s a supreme letdown that the gorgeous facade far exceeds the content within.

04-27-17