Cartographers Have it Hard

Rating: 7/10 (7 May 2017)

Living in a world informed nearly every millisecond by GPS can make the life and times of Percy Fawcett a bit hard to fathom. Especially when you consider that the last small segments of the world supposedly unseen by modern man, were explored just as the First World War began. The Amazon Rainforest was once described derisively as the "green desert". A land so inhospitable that those who ventured in were never heard from again. To Fawcett however, the rainforest was where he would plant his flag as it were.
Why learn from the natives when we can just shoot the natives! The Lost City of Z tells the true-ish story of Fawcett's (Hunnam) exhaustive search for remnants of an ancient civilization hidden deep within the jungles of Brazil and Bolivia. At the time, his theories and archaeological finds were met with considerable ridicule - a scene even recreates a sample of that ridicule with a House of Parliament-type roasting at the Royal Geographical Society. Yet despite multiple professional and personal setbacks, Fawcett managed expedition after expedition entrancing the world with fascinating stories of rugged deep-jungle adventuring.
Fawcett was partially the inspiration for Indiana Jones and it's easy to see the resemblance. Charlie Hunnam plays him with an understated charm that belies a lifetime of hard-fought, real-world wisdom. He's a glory-seeker sure, but he's the kind you'd want around in a pinch if for no other reason than he'll share the credit.
Yet the movie often feels at odds with the character. Director James Gray has steadily built a reputation for making deliberately paced classically pure films that use old-fashioned sensibilities of style and melodrama. The Lost City of Z is certainly no exception having the same restraint as The Immigrant (2013) while never skimping on the savory, visceral bits that come with jungle exploration. At its height, you can almost feel the muck and sticky air cake around you.
Call me a cynic but when a movie's mis en scene knowingly channels Aguirre (1972) while the star channels good 'ol Indie, it becomes very hard to peg a movie like this down. Sometimes it feels like Hunnam's star-like quality is threatening to torpedo the film, while other times it feels like the movie is a pip-pip-cheerio away from going awry. It never does, but because of the movie's pacing, it's easy to get your mind worked up about something else.
The film also doesn't seem to know what to do with its third (or I would argue fourth) act. We get a satisfactory character arc complete with a heartfelt family reunion and what probably amounts to British fanfare. Then the movie kind of keeps going on for another twenty minutes. It's not to tie up loose ends mind you, but rather to setup something thematically new then leaves you with the bag.
Despite its fault however, The Lost City of Z remains a fine film whose pedigree deserves to be recognized if not loved by archeologists, cartographers and fans of Arthur Conan Doyle. To modern, casual filmgoers however, The Lost City of Z might feel a little too constrained and for reasons that don't justify the pomp and circumstance.