The Lost City of Z was a movie that had all of the makings of a movie I should love. I love a good adventure movie, and the idea of floating down a wooden raft in the Amazon River sounds like something I’d enjoy. I’m a big fan of John Grisham novels, but most of us law thrillers (with the exception of ones like A Time to Kill or The Firm, which were adapted into films) often tend to blend. That is, with the exception of The Testament, a novel that was equal parts big city courtroom as it was Amazon Jungle adventure. I find something about the Amazon intriguing, almost like I can’t get enough of it, especially when it’s displayed onscreen as a true adventure story. This is exactly what James Gray’s (Two Lovers, The Yards) is. Despite not knowing anything else about this movie, I was intrigued by this one-sentence plotline and the fact that it had an 87% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of its release. Unfortunately, this movie did not live up to my lofty expectations. At 140 minutes, it was often too slow and meandering. But at the same time, it was not long enough to tell the entire story. There was too much to tell and the cuts between the various events happening. There were so many moving parts of this movie that it needed to be longer. Yet, at the same time, the movie felt like it was way too long to begin with. It was one of those “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenarios. I don’t know if it ultimately failed. But it certainly did not succeed.
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