The Lost City of Z (2016)

DIRECTOR: James Gray

CAST: Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller, Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland

REVIEW:

James Gray’s The Lost City of Z, an adaptation of David Grann’s non-fiction book of the same name, chronicles in docudrama fashion true events surrounding British explorer Percy Fawcett, who was sent to Bolivia and made several attempts at finding an ancient lost city in the Amazon and disappeared on an expedition in 1925 along with his son under mysterious circumstances.  The film, which may have been as or more engaging as a straight documentary, is a sporadically compelling but muddled and uneven biopic that remains hindered by the need to condense a twenty-year span of events into a two and a half hour film.

We open in 1905, where ambitious British soldier Major Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam), stewing over a stagnant military career, finds another path to glory when he is assigned to lead a major expedition for the Royal Geographic Society into the uncharted South American jungle to map the disputed Brazilian/Bolivian border to prevent the outbreak of war (and preserve a lucrative rubber and slave trade) on behalf of the British Empire.  Although this necessitates a difficult separation from his wife Nina (Sienna Miller) and young son Jack (Bobby Smalldridge), its success could bring Fawcett the advancement that he has been unable to find as a soldier, and he sets out accompanied by two Englishmen, Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson) and Arthur Manley (Edward Ashley) and a group of local hired help.  Although several members of the expedition die (from disease, starvation, and an attack by unfriendly natives), it is ultimately considered a success and Fawcett returns home to a hero’s welcome.  However, while hacking his way through the jungle, Fawcett heard legends of an ancient lost city of gold which predates even white civilization (and stumbles across remains of ancient pottery which lends it credence in his mind) and becomes determined to seek it out.  Although his claims of “primitives” once having had a great civilization is met with jeers by racist Imperialist British attitudes of the time period, Fawcett becomes a man obsessed.  In 1911, he returns to the Amazon, this time rejoined by Costin and Manley and also accompanied by fellow explorer James Murray (Angus Macfadyen), who had been second-in-command of Ernest Shackleton’s 1907 Antarctic expedition.  This trip, while finding additional circumstantial evidence, is frustratingly inconclusive and cut short when Murray proves an unreliable companion, stealing rations and falling ill.  The outbreak of WWI (during which Fawcett is injured in combat) prevents any further exploration until 1925, when Fawcett takes his third stab at finding the lost city, this time funded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. with his voyage a hot story in the press and accompanied only by his grown son Jack (Tom Holland)…an expedition from which neither will return.

The Lost City of Z features strong production values and a convincing recreation of early 20th century Britain, when Victorian attitudes still held sway, and the uncharted jungle of the Amazon, although Gray’s drab cinematography causes some overly dim indoor and jungle scenes.  The tone is leisurely and elegaic and the pace verging on lethargic.  There are sporadic livelier moments, such as an opening hunting party, an abrupt river ambush by hostile natives, and a competently crafted WWI battle scene, but there’s a lot of sluggish meandering around the jungle and times when The Lost City of Z strains the viewer’s attention (given the subject matter’s limited appeal to mainstream audiences, it’s unsurprising that, despite receiving some critical praise, it made only $17 million against a $30 million budget).  Most problematic is the anti-climactic conclusion; perhaps feeling its hands tied by Fawcett’s ambiguous fate, the movie crawls to an uncertain whimper and tries to semi-fictionalize a level of closure for a story that doesn’t have one, but its attempt is muddled and unsatisfying.  Gray sustains little suspense or tension.  In more atmospheric movies of this sort, the jungle becomes a presence unto itself, oozing a palpably ominous sense of suffocating envelopment.  Gray tries to give the same atmosphere here, but is not consistently successful.  The movie tries to make the relationship between Fawcett and his wife Nina an emotional center, but the cool remoteness of the tone and the sketchy character development holds it back.  There’s too much material here to pack into even a lengthy movie—half a dozen expeditions have been condensed into three—resulting in scratching the surface of Fawcett’s life and exploits in a series of shallowly-developed vignettes that doesn’t ultimately amount to much.

Charlie Hunnam (the third choice for the role after Brad Pitt stepped back from starring to staying behind-the-scenes as producer, and second option Benedict Cumberbatch dropped out due to scheduling conflicts), is solid, if not spectacular, as Fawcett, with a couple strong moments (such as his impassioned speech in defense of Amazonian “primitives” against a jeering and booing crowd).  Robert Pattinson, almost unrecognizable from Twilight‘s Edward with a beard and spectacles, sheds his “heartthrob” image and disappears into the role of his right-hand man Costin.  Both Hunnam and Pattinson are often derided as wooden, but Z suggests they may just need more substantive material to bring out their acting abilities.  Sienna Miller and Tom Holland (Spider-Man 3.0), as Fawcett’s long-suffering but supportive wife, and his eldest son who resents his often absentee father but ends up joining him on his final voyage, are fine but their screentime is limited (Holland doesn’t appear until the third act).  Smaller roles include Angus Macfadyen, Ian McDiarmid (Star Wars‘ Emperor), Franco Nero, Daniel Huttlestone (Gavroche in 2012’s Les Mis, Jack in 2014’s Into the Woods), and Harry Melling (Harry Potter’s cousin Dudley).

There are interesting ideas in The Lost City of Z, although they remain half-formed.  The movie touches significantly on period attitudes of the time, with the very idea of natives viewed as primitives having ever had a civilization being met with incredulity.  And even Fawcett himself, whose views toward natives is progressive and open-minded by the standards of the time, is less progressive when it comes to his independent-minded wife, believing in the frailty of women and firmly shutting down her desire to accompany him on his 1911 expedition.  Fawcett himself undergoes an arc of starting out motivated solely by desire for self-advancement and coming to develop an admiration for the natives his countrymen hold in scorn and a quasi-spiritual fixation with his mythical lost city.  This and other intriguing ideas could have blossomed, but are hindered by time constraints and the excess of narrative ground to cover.  Perhaps a more powerful and engaging portrayal of one of the last old-school explorers could have been assembled out of this material, but while not devoid of merit, The Lost City of Z fails to fully develop it into compelling viewing.

* * 1/2