"The Lost City of Z" by James Gray

Another airplane movie (that I watched while flying over continents and fighting fatigue) but actually this turned out completely different than I expected, perhaps better than I expected. It is advertised and packaged as adventure flick, almost something like Indiana Jones where halfway trough it transforms itself into existential search for purpose in life. Contrary to what I assumed, it was not your usual fast-food action jungle flick and the fact that I still remember it weeks after I saw it, speaks for itself.

Based on a book by David Grann (celebrated as one of the best books of 2009) and a real life character, "The Lost City of Z" is about British officer-turned-archaeologist Percy Fawcett and his adventures in than uncharted jungles of Amazon. At the beginning of the movie we are told that Fawcett might be more than capable and deserving medals & promotions like other officers, but in words of some stiff-lipped official "he was the most unfortunate in his choice of ancestors". Now, this caught me completely off guard and from this moment on I was really engaged - imagine the world where no matter what capabilities and talents person might have, his own background might constantly keep him away from success in life. This scene also explains Fawcett's frustration and his character - for duration of this biopic, Fawcett is fuelled not only by intellectual curiosity and passion of adventurous archaeologist but his main motivation is ambition to make a name for himself, to prove himself to respectable members of Royal Geographical Society. That his family life has to suffer - he is eventually sent to South America to map some forsaken corners of jungles - is taken as a right thing to do for a man of his social status. For my part, I see it today as a unnecessary and quite selfish task ("sorry honey, here you go, take care of the kids and house, I am going away for several years into some damn jungles and maybe won't come back alive, but you know, I might get few medals and we will be invited for dinners with Duke") however we are talking about world more than hundred years ago, so obviously back than people had different perspective. 

Charlie Hunnam plays real-life Fawcett and he is actually genuinely good as a frustrated man striving for some official recognition for his talents. In our modern world we might not exactly understand such burning desire to be accepted (I'd say to hell with any society that wants me to be its member) but Fawcett lived in different times. There is a scene where his wife said something deeply profound, like "a man reach should exceed his grasp, or whats the heaven for" (this was to show how much she supported and understood him) and though it doesn't sound very deep on the paper, in the contest of the story it makes a perfect sense, I actually liked it very much. On and off into adventures Fawcett goes and the movie basically follows his life and adventures, it is quite gripping story and if you are not familiar with it, the end is surprising - not what I expected at all - it is fairly moving and it inspired me to read more about Fawcett, I might even go for the book that inspired this movie, although critics hated it and claimed the author made hero of someone completely obscure and undistinguished. These critics are probably related to the same people who found Fawcett the most unfortunate in his choice of ancestors.