THE LOST CITY OF
It’s the incredible-but-true tale of an amazing adventurous explorer... they’ve turned into a plodding, frustrating, charisma-free disaster
the human puzzle’. Thanks to Hunnam’s thoroughly underwhelming performance – much of it earnestly whispered, as is the modern fashion – it’s not so much Z as Zzzzzzzz... Sorry, Charlie, but – despite the regular attacks from indigenous tribes and the inevitable talk of cannibalism – it’s all so dry, all so boring.
Watching him on screen, I did wonder if he’d been cast because of a passing resemblance to his producer, Pitt, but I also found myself fervently hoping this is a one-off disappointment. Because Hunnam is having something of a moment and I’d been looking forward both to Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend Of The
Sword and to the remake of Papillon – in both of which Hunnam is starring – until this.
But the casting is odd almost right across the board. Sienna Miller may be jarringly modern, but at least she’s modestly watchable as Fawcett’s oft-abandoned wife, Nina, but, elsewhere, Robert Pattinson is both unrecognisable and underused as his right-hand man Henry Costin, while Spider-Man fans will be disappointed by the small part their man, Tom Holland, has to play as Fawcett’s son, Jack.
When quite so much goes wrong, it’s inevitable that blame falls on the director, who ought to be providing the film with its overall vision. But Gray doesn’t seem to have one. His screenplay is particularly disappointing, beginning somewhere near the middle and then simply plodding laboriously on in a disjointed and episodic manner, as Fawcett makes a series of disaster-prone expeditions to the Amazon in pursuit of his elusive dream.
I quite liked the strange, unresolved ending, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to send others out on to the street gnashing their teeth in frustration. After all, at well over two hours, it’s not a short film and there will be many who want something more concrete than what we’re offered here. Sadly, it’s not just Z that’s got lost along the way.
‘I quite liked the strange, unresolved ending but others… will be gnashing their teeth in frustration’