Gray has become one of my favorite American filmmakers. But as Nina points out, when Percy repeatedly leaves England for South America to lead a band of similarly obsessive men (including his best friend, Corporal Henry Costin, a terrific character turn by Robert Pattinson) he's forcing her into the traditional role of supportive wife and caretaker to their kids, and assuming that she'll subordinate her own dreams (which he hasn't asked about) to his.
#LOST CITY OF ZED MOVIE#
When she speaks of their marriage as a partnership of equals, it's clear that she really means it, and that Percy and the movie respect her vision. His wife Nina ( Sienna Miller) is a proto-feminist, or at least more liberated than English army wives tended to be in the early 1900s. That last ambition takes a bit of a hit, though, because Percy keeps going back to the jungle in hopes of finding the lost city. Percy would never describe himself in these terms, because Freudian self-analysis wasn't a thing back then, but he is driven by a need to prove that he's the opposite of his father in every way: a reliable officer, an important explorer, a dedicated family man. Percy also had deeper, personal motivations, chief among them to prove himself a respectable Englishman, especially since his father's Army career destructed in a blaze of alcoholic misbehavior ("He's been rather unfortunate in his choice of ancestors," a superior officer says of Percy). Fawcett hoped that finding Z would prove his theory that-contrary to the racist attitudes of the same people funding his expeditions-certain nonwhite civilizations were more advanced than any western society in existence at the same time. What happens feels as random yet inevitable as life itself.Ĭharlie Hunnam stars as Percy Fawcett, a British Army officer who in the first part of the 20th century led expeditions into the Amazon jungle to find the titular city, which he named Zed, or Z.
The order of events doesn't stick to any established commercial movie template. Those who don't know anything about the tale going in (a category that included me) might be gobsmacked by what happens. as well as whether the film is anti-colonial enough for modern tastes. Viewers who are familiar with the true story the film is based on will enjoy it on an immersive level, savoring the period details and arguing about whether they were represented accurately by writer and director James Gray (" We Own the Night," " The Immigrant"). But it's really about what happens when you get older and realize that your youthful dreams haven't come true yet: you either ratchet expectations back a bit, or double down and charge harder in the direction of your obsession, realizing that it's not as easy to maintain momentum as it used to be. "The Lost City of Z" is about an Englishman who's determined to find an ancient city in the Brazilian jungle.
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