The Lost City of Z (2016)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Lost City of Z (2016) – J. Gray

Although the material seems perfect for a film – an explorer travels the uncharted border between Brazil and Bolivia along the Amazon River in the early 20^th century – somehow the execution lets things down.  Perhaps it is the “Masterpiece Theatre” treatment that keeps things stately and stodgy?  A quick comparison with Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) which admittedly placed its Amazonia voyage a few centuries earlier, shows how dynamic and real-seeming this sort of film could be (cue Klaus Kinski and spider monkeys).  Instead, director James Gray somehow reduces the tension within the film, despite the physical challenges faced by the explorer, Percy Fawcett (played by Charlie Hunnam), and the moral/political conflict between him and the establishment.  Of course, some of the problem could be due to the rather earnest style of acting by Hunnam and others which comes across as stylized or phony – only Robert Pattison, playing Fawcett’s aide-de-camp, seems natural and charismatic.  Yet, the story of Fawcett, who ended up disappearing in 1925, is interesting enough that I looked him up on Wikipedia later.  And the cinematography by Darius Khondji does offer some beautiful shots in beautiful locations.  But the film is over-long, misuses Siena Miller (as Fawcett’s suffragette wife), and squanders whatever chances it had for something really special.  Too bad.