Fawcett’s obsessive nature, and the impact it has on his longsuffering wife Nina (Sienna Miller) has perhaps unintended parallels with Peter Weir’s underrated 80s drama Mosquito Coast, in which Harrison Ford’s inventor drags his family halfway across Central America on a quixotic mission of his own. In this regard, we can’t help but feel more than a little sorry for Nina, who’s left in stuffy old England raising the kids while Fawcett dodges arrows, or the various other adventurers, guides and other odd characters who assist Fawcett down river and wind up with all kinds of ugly injuries and maladies. The most captivating spark of human spirit comes not from Fawcett, but his wife. Sienna Miller puts in a stunning performance as Nina – fiercely intelligent and quick witted, she’s more than a match for her celebrated husband. Indeed, there’s the strong implication that Nina could easily go off on jungle adventures of her own had she grown up towards the end of the 20th century instead of at its beginning. Even when she gets the odd less-than-elegant line (“I am an independent woman!”), Miller is superbly watchable. Indeed, in the final third, there’s the sense that none of this is an accident; as the film draws to a close, The Lost City Of Z proves to be just as much Nina’s story as her husband’s. The Lost City Of Z is out in UK cinemas on the 24th March.
