- Title: The Lost City of Z
- IMDb: link
2016’s The Lost City of Z is a stylish period drama set in the early 20th Century centered around the life and explorations of surveyor Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) who grew obsessed with discovering the ruins of an advanced civilization hidden deep with the Amazon jungle. The film does capture the drive behind exploration. Despite the personal cost to his family life, and the dangerous conditions of each expedition, the film sells us on Fawcett’s obsession and eagerness to return to the Amazon to prove his theories which were initially dismissed by other explorers of the time.
While a box office disappointment, the film earned critical praise for its style, cinematography, screenplay, and Hunnam’s performance. However, film does suffer from some lulls, and the ending attempting to put a hopeful note to Fawcett’s disappearance feels a bit too Hollywood.
The Lost City of Z is a solid, if not always fully engaging, look at a historical figure through a particular perspective (one which some objected to). The largely fictitious rose-colored ending also leaves something to be desired. Robert Pattinson and Sienna Miller are worthy of note in roles as Fawcett’s collaborator and wife respectively with a notable appearance by Tom Holland in the film’s final half-hour as Fawcett’s grown son who inherited his father’s obsession for finding the city. The film, now available on 4K, is worth a watch if it crosses your path but isn’t something worth an expedition.
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