Director: James Gray
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller, Robert Pattinson
Running Time: 141 minutes
Synopsis: In Britain of the early 1900s, the Royal Geographic Society assigns Army Major Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) to map the disputed border between Brazil and Bolivia. He leaves his pregnant wife Nina (Sienna Miller) behind, and is joined on his adventure by Corporal Costin (Robert Pattinson). The expedition is arduous, but exposes Fawcett to the potential for hidden tribal civilizations in the jungle. Intent on finding a mythical city covered with gold, over the years Fawcett embarks on several more dangerous expeditions into the Amazon region, straining his family relationships.
What Works Well: The cinematography and settings are often visually impressive, and some moments of tension are found in the encounters with various tribes. Fawcett's troubled heritage (his father's shortcomings hampered his career) contain the promise of an interesting character, and hiding somewhere in the jungle is the unexpanded theme of men choosing wild adventures to justify a sense of self, oblivious to family damage.
What Does Not Work As Well: This is a ponderous, meandering, Quixotic, over-long, and ultimately dubious biography that never overcomes a sense of self-inflated importance. Director and writer James Gray finds little drama in repetitive scenes of Amazonian trudging, and errs on the side of excessive padding and distractions, including interludes of anachronistic feminism, a detour to the World War One trenches, a deer hunt, and uninspired family tension. Fawcett starts as a stoic Englishman attached to career responsibility, and 141 minutes later, ends the exact same way.
Key Quote:
Fawcett: If we may find a city, where one was considered impossible to exist, it may well write a whole new chapter in human history.
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