Love him or hate him, we should all feel appreciative that someone like James Gray exists in the world. While I haven't loved all of his films (I found We Own The Night pretentious and The Immigrant dull,) I admire him greatly and am happy that he is making them. He's keeping that old fashioned sensibility alive. Think David Lean mixed with John Ford with a dash of Alfred Hitchcock thrown in for good measure. He takes his time, he builds characters, his visuals are minimal but effective and he even manages to study his actors' faces through their every single move. It's hard to deny these traits have been lost in the age of Michael Bay and even more talented directors like Ben Wheatley and James Wan, all of whom tend to throw a lot at the screen in an effort to keep the audience engaged.
Gray's latest film, The Lost City Of Z, based on the famous/infamous exploration of Percy Fawcett and his proposal that there may be civilizations we don't even know about living among us, will undoubtedly bore many people and even frustrate a lot in its deliberate pace and runtime that sometimes seems superfluous but is needed to truly tell the story in its full effect. Others like myself, however, will find this story of a man who will risk everything to prove what he knew he witnessed a fascinating character study and will appreciate Charlie Hunnan's lead performance, which feels so authentic that I forgot I was watching that guy from "Sons Of Anarchy" simply play this explorer.
The film follows Fawcett, who seems like a fish out of water everywhere he goes. That is, until he gets assigned to explore the Amazon River with Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson, near unrecognizable under pounds of facial hair and continuing to prove that he's an excellent actor who just once got stuck with a bad role.) On one of his journeys, Fawcett discovers what he claims is Zed, a hidden city full of people who make up their own civilization. Upon returning, he tries to convince his colleagues that he's not crazy but they laugh him out of the room, much to the chagrin of his dedicated wife Nina (Sienna Miller, also excellent.) This prompts Fawcett to become absolutely obsessed with proving the truth of what he saw.
Gray never once uses an in your face shot, instead opting, as he often does, for minimal shots that say everything they need to and then some. This is a fantastic talent working behind the camera, knowing exactly what he needs and doesn't need. Toward the end of the film, Tom Holland shows up as Jack, Percy and Nina's son who demands that he and pop go explore together and this section of the film provides one of the most beautiful shots I can remember seeing in a film for quite some time.
As well, the script by Gray (based on a book by David Grann) makes every single character feel authentic and relatable. The desire of Fawcett to get to the heart of the matter and prove everyone right is inherently relatable as is Henry's desire to eventually just stay out of it. These are not cardboard cut outs...they are real people who it is very easy to feel for. This is also due to the performance. Hunnan, Pattinson, Miller and Holland are all magnificent, opting to give depth to these characters rather than play them in a more straightforward manner.
Of course, there are some problems with the film. The journey eventually loses steam as it becomes clearer what's going on, which makes the conclusion potentially unsatisfying for some, although I found it to be completely worthwhile. Also, there are a few times where the pace doesn't feel so much deliberate as just poorly done but those are fairly brief moments.
For the most part, The Lost City Of Z works as both an interesting character study of obsession and what it drives people to do as well as a suspenseful, Hitchcockesque thriller about what could or could not be a completely misguided effort and how that effort could end up bringing more than you were hoping for. To quote Greg Kihn---"They don't write 'em like that anymore."
(4 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images, brief strong language and some nudity.)
No comments:
Post a Comment