Written by: James Gray (written for the screen by), David Grann (based on the book by)
Directed by: James Gray
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland
Rating: PG-13
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it. Read my previous movie reviews!
Plot
A true-life drama centering on British explorer Colonel Percival Fawcett, who disappeared while searching for a mysterious city in the Amazon in the 1920s.
Verdict
This is a movie that I didn't really like until I got to the end. The last few scenes were a preview of what this could have been, but the rest of the movie doesn't reach that mark. It's a movie about the journey, but it frequently fails to convey the dangerous and difficult conditions. Refocusing this as Fawcett's last ditch effort to find the city with his son could have given this the focus it needed.
It depends.
Review
A movie that I didn't really like but slowly lured me in. By the time I got to end I was on board, but I don't think this movie had the same conceit at the beginning. The last few scenes were a preview of what this could have been, but the rest of the movie never reaches this mark.
It's a movie about the journey, and frequently the directing seems to miss the mark on how difficult and daring this journey is. It's tied too closely to the outline of Fawcett's life, tied to this narrative that doesn't translate to a solid movie.
Fawcett is an under achieving solder in the British army. He's sent on an almost hopeless plight as his group forge into unknown jungles. His first encounter of a long abandoned, though advanced city fuels his passion to discover it officially.
The movie feels abridged. None of the moments feels as big and exciting as they should. Fawcett's group is attacked early on, but it's rather tame. The attack could have been used to characterize the group, but it wasn't. Fawcett finds the city and then leaves, but we don't get a lof exploring. I understand his job was to make a map, but even that could be more exciting than displayed. The jungle should be exciting.
The directing dulls what this could have been, and the extreme color grading doesn't help, giving this a noticeably yellow tint. Is it to make the movie feel aged?
The story itself is fascinating, but it never immerses me in the journey. While Fawcett is the focus, it often feels like a check list of major life events, never capturing what drove him. Maybe he wanted to avenge his failure or prove he's right, but where's the sense of wonder that this adventure demands? He comes close many times, but failure hangs around his neck. The plot too frequently returns to England where scholars deride his lack of success.
We do get one solid scene out of that, where Murray accuses Fawcett of leaving him to die. This scene begins to have the intensity the movie needed.
Focusing just on Fawcett and Jacks adventure would have given this a focus, and a way to wave his failures into it without the plot jumping around so much from South American to London and back. This even goes to World War I for no reason other than it happened to Fawcett. This is tied too closely to his life, trying to include all the moments.
I don't know if this is the writing, directing, or acting. Maybe it's varying degrees of all three, though the director ultimate takes the blame. This movie could have and should have been better. The last twenty minutes really capture what this understated drama could have been. The final scenes with Fawcett and his son Jack are a dream like culmination of the adventure. A concluding paragraph confirms that Fawcett was vindicated after death. The final few scenes made me begin liking this. I wanted to go back and watch it again after those scenes, but I had to wait two hours for those scenes.
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