The Lost City (2004)
Director: Andy Garcia
Screenplay: Cabrera Infante, Daniel Vujic
Running Time: 144 minutes
Actor/director Andy Garcia stars as nightclub owner Fico Fellove, part of a middle-class family that is doing OK in pre revolution Cuba under the leadership of dictator Fulgencio Batista.
His two brothers sympathise with the revolutionary ideals of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, which leads to many family arguments about what kind of leadership the country needs. Fico is them separated from his brothers by their divided ideals and so the story is set for differing views of the political spectrum in that era.
Garcia is Cuban and an exile in real life, so I was wondering how objective he was going to be. To be fair, he gives both sides a serve as not being the ideal solution to the problem that is/was Cuba. Some parts of the picture are slow, and it could have finished 20 minutes earlier than it did, but still it gets more ticks than crosses an is worth a look for anybody interested in the history of that troubled country.
Bill Murray's role adds something interesting to the mix, while Hoffman's cameo as mobster Meyer Lansky adds little to the pic, and seems more like an add-on for the sake of it.
3.5 stars out of 5
