The Lost City of Z

[kevinknapman]

At the BFI Southbank last night for a preview screening of a 35mm print of James Gray's The Lost City of Z with an introduction from author and historian David Grann whose book the film is based on.

A powerful and often moving film about the explorer Percy Fawcett, who at the beginning of the 20th century was a military man without any medals but with a disgraced name due to his alcoholic, gambling father ('he's been rather unfortunate in his choice of ancestors').
Accepting a job to map the Bolivia/Brazil border in order to improve his reputation, despite the time he'll have to spend away from his family, he comes across antiquities that suggest that there may have been an advanced civilisation that could change the perception of South America as a country of savages.
Returning back to England he is determined to return and find the lost city he calls Z.

Anyone expecting an action-packed Boy's Own adventure in the style of Indiana Jones are likely to be disappointed by The Lost City of Z. What writer and director James Gray delivers instead is a slow-burning study of one man's obsession in the face of familial responsibility and the scepticism of his peers.

The Lost City of Z is an impressive film from a director who clearly desires the return to the film-making of the past (a shot of a stream of whisky moving across the screen before cutting to a train moving through the South American jungles is a scene transition worthy of Kubrick and Lean) and if the scope isn't quite as epic as Lawrence of Arabia the ambition is hard to fault.

Certainly Darius Khondji's cinematography makes it look the part. From the opening deer hunt to the surreal discovery of an operatic performance in the middle of the jungle, the muddy trenches of the first world war that briefly interrupt Fawcett's search, the native villages at night lit by fire and its dreamlike final shot, the film is visually stunning throughout. This is complemented by a fine score from Christopher Spelman which adds to the sense of epic grandeur.

Sons of Anarchy's Charlie Hunnam gives a fine performance in the lead with excellent support from a bearded Robert Pattinson as his expedition partner, Ian McDairmid as the head of the Royal Geographical Society, Franco Nero as the extravagant opera-staging boss of a mining company, Angus Macfadyen as a supporter and previous Antarctic explorer who joins Fawcett on his second Amazonian expedition and Tom Holland as the son initially scornful of his father's obsession but joins him on his last.
Most impressive of all however is Sienna Miller who delivers a career best performance as Nina Fawcett, transforming what could have been a thankless role of the wife who stays at home into a strong independent character in her own right. By the final shot it's obvious that this is as much her story as it is Percy's.

Hopefully this will give James Gray the opportunity to make more films on this scale. It's UK release already puts it ahead of his previous film, 2013's The Immigrant, which still hasn't received a release in this country despite having a cast that includes Marion Cottilard, Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner.

An impressive and emotionally involving film that deserves to reach a wide audience, it would also make a fine double-bill with Ciro Guerra's similiarly themed Embrace of the Serpent.

[raj101]

A slow paced but good watch - the first half was akin to a slow creeping horror movie, 2nd half became a flawed heroic epic.

Fawcett comes across as a decent bloke on a moral level, and a competent if obviously somewhat misguided explorer - yet a clueless father, reminding me of Vig Mortenson's Captain Fantastic from last year. The end sequence is a bit awry, the weakest part of the movie.

A quite quietly quixotic 3.5 stars.

[D-Fens]

A quite quietly quixotic

More like the Lost City of budget Easyjet holidays where you can only measure time by how old Spiderman is getting and a flawed transition shot where water should have faded to water, not a boat but passable enough entertainment for a slow BBC Sunday could have used a monkey but they'd have probably shot and ate it, amirite?

[Beate]

This was dire. Way too long and slow-paced. The entire movie is about a failed explorer who vanished trying to find a lost city in the jungle of Bolivia. Sienna Miller is trying to play a feminist heroine, but she's still the left-behind wife not allowed to go with him and reduced to looking after the children while he just disappears for years exploring, returns, produces another child, then disappears again for any length of time.

Zzzzzzzzz.....

4/10

[D-Fens]

More like the Lost City of spoilers, amirite?

But how 'bout dat postal service.

[raj101]

yes you are right. though like me u appear to have found the lost city of sarcasm.

PS dont call me Amirite ty

[tobyjonathans]

I was very impressed by The Lost City of Z. Well cast, Hunnam being particularly excellent, and tightly directed by Grey. It's not a fast paced film but one so intelligently constructed, and so thematically charged, that I was engaged throughout.

I would say that it is a film that struggles with the weight of its historical duration and isn't always able to quite balance progressing time with progressive emotional depth. That said, this was only an occasional concern for me.

[ejwrank]

Well we agree with Beate and were also very bored by this. Terrible script and wooden deliveries. And we thought it would never end -- I mean we were ready to leave but still had to endure the World War I trenches and then another trip back to Bolivia. Totally forgettable.

[Eternaldusk]

Hmm. I watched this on Sunday, and although it's only been 3 days, I'm already starting to forget about it. It was boring, had no impact, and an especially weak ending.

[ladams888]

Saw this at Clapham Picturehouse. Having purposely not read anything about the film beforehand, but having seen one trailer, I was expecting an Indiana Jones type of escapade. Thus I was disappointed that the film seemed to be interminably long and really dragged in the middle. I caught myself looking at my watch several times. I was unaware, until the closing credits, that it was based on a true story and felt that had this been mentioned at the beginning of the film, I might have been more forgiving. The obsessed explorer Fawcett, (played by Charlie Hunnam from Sons of Anarchy) will stop at nothing to find the Lost City of Z, deserting his long-suffering wife (Sienna Miller) and children along the way. Several large chunks of the film could have been edited out – we didn’t really need to see him at the battle of the Somme – which might have made it more watchable (probably not, though!). Script was pretty dire as well. An interesting premise for a film, but unfortunately not well executed. 5/10