User reviews

Critics all over have trashed this movie on account on its politics, angry at the way García has depicted Che Guevara as the real murderer he was, at the way he has portrayed the profound injustices and oppression of Fidel Castro's regime, at the way it does not conform to the sympathetic view Hollywood has always had about the Cuban Revolution. The movie suffers sometimes from the inexperienced hand of a first-time director, the lack of the epic budget it needed, and the poor acting of Inés Sastre but it is not a bad movie, not at all. It's an extremely entertaining film that uses its modest resources with great care to give us a dignified, sincere, notably balanced and very emotional document of the terrible experience of the Cuban people. Don't believe the extremely biased reviews of The New York Times, The New Yorker, and other media. Go and see it. Music lovers will enjoy a splendid mix of popular and classical Cuban music, and a great original score which will make a nice CD.

Watching this film, I am so reminded of Casablanca. Like Rick, Fico Fellove (Andy Garcia) is seemingly oblivious to the oppression and evil that surrounds him, only concerned with running his nightclub. Unlike Rick, Fico never changes and only connects with the enemy to save his brother or his friend.

The movie is just too darn pretty. It presents a Cuba that may be familiar to the upper class and the rich American tourists, and neglects to mention the Cuba that demanded a revolution. This Cuba, one of poor, uneducated peasants that were in virtual slavery on sugar and tobacco plantations and women who sold themselves to tourists, is seen only in Mikhail Kalatozov's Soy Cuba, which will be released in a deluxe edition this month.

The movie worth watching for Garcia's performance and the performances of Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray, and Elizabeth Peña, as well as some great Afro-Cuban music.

It probably did great box office in Miami.

As an AmeriCuban who remembers her visits to Cuba as a small child, I was very touched to see on screen the Cuba that I knew was not just in my dreams.

What an excellent job in picking places that can make you really think it was filmed in Havana! You can feel as if you are really there! There are those who wonder how Andy Garcia could have portrayed Cuba so realistically when he left the island as a 5 year old child. But it is at those very young tender years that impressions are made that stay throughout ones lives. My early trips to Cuba have remained very vivid in my mind. I understand him so well.

You can feel that he put his all in this movie. Countless Cubans can relate to the story that is told. What a heart-wrenching moment when he leaves Cuba and his only keepsake is taken away from him! How many Cubans must have passed through this same scene?

The music warmed my soul. I would listen to it over and over.

And that last scene! well, I don't want to give it away. You have to see it.

The directing and acting was border line good at best. The characters were too casual and cartoonish. Bill Murray as the "Writer" provided the wit and Dustin Hoffman's "Meyer Lansky" was the comic relief. The location shots, wardrobe, music, make-up and coloring held my interest for the two hours. I must point out, the eloquent cadence by Che and his rebels, how profound. I'm guessing this is how they would've came across, if English were a first language (I may be wrong, though). I was bit peeved with the English and Spanish exchanges toward the latter half of the movie, it was half-ass and misleading.

The film is a romanticized version of the revolution and nothing more. I, at first was a bit disappointed but soon realized the film should be viewed under the same principles as a musical. I was hoping Fico and Che were gonna uphold my wishes by performing a musical soliloquy declaring their deepest desires for Aurora (Court yard scene would have made sense). Let's just say that never came about. Nonetheless, Che did make a good one hand catch with the Champagne glass. His hands could've been better used at third base. I hope that wasn't edited because then my vision of Che at the hot corner would be tarnished.

So what if the film was fluff and not worth three croquetas de hamon? It's a fantasy through the eyes of one director and I'm sure if Andy could've done it again, music would have been at the forefront.

Do it again Andy and let's see Fidel do a number with the pigeon. Libertad! Libertad! Libertad!

The music is great, of course, it is Cuba. The costumes are beautiful; so are the women and the men. Worth a look though for it's style and feel of the glamor that was Havana, the physical warmth and affection that lives in Cuban families and it's interesting anti-Castro portrayal of events. It even challenges the hero status of Che Guevara.

But Andy Garcia's tale of a wealthy family coming apart like this lovely island during the Cuban revolution suffers from the self-indulgence that so often weakens the work of writer/director/producer combos. Who is going to say, "Andy, enough of those close-ups of you looking longingly at your lost loves? After about an hour and a half, we sure wish someone would! It leaves me wondering why, with all Cuba has gone through, our government continues to punish Cubans with economic sanctions that do no harm to Castro, but keep the Cubans from thriving from their hard hard work and record breaking high literacy rates.

As an American of Cuban parents, I had always heard the political rhetoric about Cuba as I was growing up. All the while I longed to see this beautiful island which my parents sadly left behind. Though Andy Carcia's film was not filmed in Cuba (it was filmed in the Dominican Republic) it gave me a chance to see a "Cuba" I had only heard about. As for the film itself, the conflicts of family, politics and love in the film is beautifully portrayed to reflect what has been a painful truth to a great number of Cubans. I definitely recommend this to all, Cubans and non-Cubans alike. I hope Mr. Garcia gets due recognition for this beautiful body of work. By the way... Is there an accompanying soundtrack album? The music was phenomenal!

The movie has a great story, and if you lived in Cuba during the late 50's and early 60's, you will be able to relate to it vividly. Both, my wife and I liked the movie but we felt it was too long. Andy Garcia could have done a better job editing this movie. The events were pretty accurately portrayed and there were many intense moments. Since I'm Cuban and my wife is Irish, I was able to relate to the historical part of the movie, while my wife had a lot of questions (what did the flag with the #26 represent?, what happened to the parents? etc...). I also felt Andy should have picked better songs for this movie. There was a lot of Afro-Cuban music, but not much cha-cha-cha, mambo, danzon, son, etc... which were typical type of music during that time, especially in cabarets. Overall, I gave it a 7 and my wife a 6.5.

An excellent movie with a small budget. Andy did a wonderful job on his first attempt. I am sure we will see more of him as a producer. Of course there is room for improvement and I think that if he concentrates in the details of the production without having to act at the same time we will probably see this improvement in his next work.

I liked the music specially the showman that portrayed Benny More. Also the choreography was very good and the dancers where spectacular, in particular the fellow that participated as a solo. The guy playing the trumpet at the beginning and end of the movie was superb.

It gives an overall picture of the history from that period in the island nation and without being documentary it respects the motives and shortcomings of any historical process such as this one.

Thanks Andy for this movie, and keep up the good work.

I had hoped for better from Andy Garcia. The general idea is a good one: a quick look at the forces motivating the Cuban middle class to flee the island in the late 50's-mostly for the US, shown in terms of the disintegration of one upper-class Cuban family. But the dialogue is utilitarian and not much more, the characters are predictable, and what on earth was Bill Murray doing in it? He seems to be a sort of American clown visible only to Andy Garcia's character, like Harvey the giant rabbit. There are memorable visual moments in it, like the acres of white canopied tobacco plantation, with towering palm trees protruding; or Castro's guerrillas materializing out of the head-high sawgrass to intercept a mounted volunteer, or those great moody night shots along the Havana corniche. But the script is flat. It doesn't amplify the characters, and it barely advances the story. Judging by the comments preceding mine, I guess that my problem is that I'm not of Cuban extraction. I like well-made films, not films that stroke my particular political sensitivities, as this film seems to do for some viewers. THE definitive film about the Cuban revolution and/or the Cuban exodus and diaspora has yet to be made.

This movie definitely has some strong points. There is some stunning cinematography and a few amazing sequences that depict quite beautifully the trauma of the revolution on one Cuban family...But OH MY GOD, some of the writing is just awful, especially for female characters. The female characters are so two dimensional, shallow and unbelievable. I found myself rolling my eyes throughout the movie at the words uttered by and to them "You don't have to be sad, you just have to be beautiful."...or something like that. Terrible. The plot is also quite disjointed and awkward and it goes on too long. I am on the verge of saying don't bother seeing this movie, but for the few strengths mentioned earlier it is probably worth checking out.

One day someone is going to make a decent film about the Cuban revolution, but in the meantime we will have to put up with half-baked efforts like this and Havana.

There is no doubting the earnestness of actor-director Andy Garcia's convictions but what we basically have here is an overlong and rather dull vanity project. Garcia plays Fico, an affluent nightclub owner who finds his family and life slowly disintegrating in the midst of the events leading up to - and consequences of - Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution. Long, deliberately-paced films are usually that way to establish a number of characters in depth and to lure the viewer into investing their sympathy and concern for these characters. But this film seems to take forever to tell us very little about Garcia's Fico or any other members of his family. Garcia looks perpetually miserable and seems to be trying to imitate Al Pacino in the Godfather movies, while the film itself seems to be trying to establish an epic sweep that it completely fails to achieve.

The film looks and sounds terrific, but Garcia isn't a great, or even particularly accomplished director. And what exactly is the purpose of Bill Murray's character? He's supposed to be a writer with an infectious sense of humour but he rarely says anything funny despite the reactions of other characters, and his presence adds nothing to the plot. Similarly, Dustin Hoffman pops in for a couple of meaningless scenes as Meyer Lansky which wouldn't be missed if they were removed.

What are you ex-patriots smoking? Andy Garcia is a b-movie actor, with minimal talent and all of this shows in his embarrassing opus from a narrow minded, spoiled rich kid from Miami. Hold this film up to Walter Salles' Motorcycle Diaries and lets see which film wilts in the light of day. Bill Murray, Dustin Hoffman look awkwardly out of place. And everyone's speaking English?! WTF! Many things have been said about Ernesto Guevara, but Garcia carelessly passes him off as a bloodthirsty tyrant. This was not the depiction I felt after seeing the better film released a year before that portrays a thoughtful medical student who was determined to blur the lines drawing up North, South and Central America. Like I said, This is your Brain (Motorcycle Diaries)and This is your brain on Drugs (Lost City).

"Lost City" is actually a pretty good movie. Yeah, it has its problems, but it is not at all the giant turkey that reviewers insisted it was.

Problem? The movie depicts Che Guevara as less-than-saintly. Oh-so-politically correct reviewers can't have that! Look, Che liked to kill people, himself, with his own hands, without benefit of trial. That's amply documented. And that's the big secret this movie exposes.

What else have you got? "Lost City" is beautiful to look at. Even its detractors can't deny that. Want to look at some of the most beautiful people in the world, wearing gorgeous fashions from the late 1950s, and black Cubans, all in white, channeling African deities as they achieve trance state? There are turquoise waters, sandy beaches, forested mountains and a tobacco plantation.

Speaking of beauty, Nestor Carbonell and Ines Sastre are two of the most beautiful people alive today, and you get to ogle them here.

The soundtrack is out-of-this-world terrific. You can't second guess Andy Garcia's taste in Cuban music. The combination of music and scenes is intriguing.

Bill Murray as a expat American writer / comedian is one of the most interesting characters I've ever seen in a movie. I never was sure if he was a real person or Garcia / Fico's imaginary friend and secret sharer, sort of like a character whose identity I won't spoil for you in "A Beautiful Mind." Dustin Hoffman is always great, and he's an interesting Meyer Lansky, going on about "beshert" (destiny) and egg cream recipes. Ah, the glory days of organized crime.

There are a couple of really memorable scenes: Che Guevara arising out of a green field in the Sierra Maestra, his men arising behind him; a noble man dies in a scene that is an obvious homage to Wajda's "Ashes and Diamonds." I wonder if Garcia was embedding a political message in that homage -- "Ashes and Diamonds" also depicts a morally comprised world of shifting historical tectonic plates, where taking any stand is an iffy proposition.

The best scene in the movie occurs when heroes of the revolution take a firm stand against saxophones. This one scene is worth the price of admission.

The woman who leads the charge against saxophones is so perfect in her ugly righteousness, she could be a multiculti professor on an American campus. If you've been on an American campus lately, you know what I mean.

I've lived under communism -- have you? Have the folks who panned this movie? Listen, it's really like that -- just like that saxophone scene. And worse. Don't believe me? Go. Right now. Check it out. Write me. And, no, right wing dictatorships are no better, and "Lost City" provides a very brutal portrait of Batista and his thugs. What gets me is that American critics seem to think that when Che shoots you dead it feels better than when Batista shoots you dead. And that's just wrong.

Okay, so the movie is not perfect. The romantic leads have no chemistry. You can be beautiful and still not generate a lot of heat. Andy Garcia, as a director, is not Orson Welles; he's not John ford. But then, who is? There are a lot of characters and subplots. At one minute Meyer Lansky is walking into a room; the next minute a beautiful woman trailing the threads of a whole 'nother subplot comes walking in -- it doesn't all hang together.

After a while I just surrendered to Andy Garcia's passion. This movie is so obviously his labor of love, and there are much worse things a movie could be.

I wish this movie could have been an eight, or a nine, or a ten, but it's certainly not a 2.5, its Rotten Tomatoes' rating. "Lost City" is at least a seven, just like "I Am Cuba," another beautiful, flawed movie -- but one critics champion, because in that one, Fidel is heroic. Check it out.

But do give "Lost City", and the people of Cuba, a chance.

Born in 1962, in the mist of the turmoil, I left Cuba in 1967 thanks to the "Freedom Flights" at the age of 4. It was about time a film like this was done. I commend Andy Garcia and all involved for its historical accuracy. I am grateful for the "Ficos" of the time, like my parents. What courage and resolve. If history is not to be repeated, we must embrace it, learn from it, and not wash it from our memories. Incredible acting, music, scenery (thank you Dominican Republic). We need to remember "where we've been" so as to know "where we're going" - bring plenty of tissues; one box is just not enough. The only reason I gave it a 9, as opposed to a 10, is because I would have really liked to have seen some time dedicated to the family, specifically, the brothers, in their youth. The important relationship of the Cuban family would have been better understood if we had seen it from early on. The significance of the family nucleus, born of the parents' rearing, is crucial in the story of the Cubans. The relationship between the uncle and his nephews was synonymous with that but could have been further developed.

A lyrical allegory for the loss of Cuba, of homeland, of family, of love, of hope and self-determination. For those of us who know Cuba, it captures the exquisite pain we feel and share amongst us. For those who have not tasted the bitter fruit of knowledge of the betrayal that is Castrismo, may this film give you a sense of this truth. Art conveying transcending reality.

Lush imagery. Phenomenal score. Very well acted. Runs a little long, but maybe that is meant as a reflection on the barbudos tendency to run on (and to stay in power much, but much too long).

I think that for those who do not know what happened in Cuba during the revolution, this movie is a great film to watch (no matter what the critics believe). Not only do we learn how it happened, we also learn about the struggles of the Cuban people. As in a work of art, everything in this movie has meaning or significance. The story is real and is expressed with sentiment... a romantic, but also nostalgic feeling. Also, the movie captured many details of the Cuban culture (including family values). Finally, I'd like to add that to watch a movie about Cuba without the glamorizing of the revolution or any of its leaders is like a breath of fresh air. Andy Garcia is a genius!

As a Cuban Americans living in the USA since 1960, due to Castro's revolutions in Cuba, we are very proud of this movie and Andy Garcia's work and effort. We highly recommend this film; because for the first time that there is finally a movie that depicts the reality of Castro's revolution. A most see film about the catastrophic effects of Castro's Revolution in the Cuban family. Plus the fact that the cast, music, and directing are superb !!.Beautiful settings and photography. Andy deserves a sound track Oscar nomination for the well perform and coordinated music that clearly represents the rich and influential music of the period. Thank you to, Andy, Dustin, Steven, Bill, Enrique, Nestor and everyone that made this film possible.

An interesting film by Andy Garcia that looks back on the Havana that was. Garcia was only five years old when his family fled Cuba in 1961 after the 1959 revolution and Fidel Castro's takeover. "The Lost City" is a nostalgic tribute to his homeland and especially Havana and its musical culture. In a bonus short with this film on DVD, Garcia explains that most people who have had to leave their homelands forcefully always have a longing, a connection with it. That applies to emigrants forced out and those who fled the persecution of oppressive governments. And, children of emigrants as well, he says.

This film was some 16 years in the planning. Garcia assembled an excellent cast and craftsmen to produce the film, from the writing to the filming, locations and all aspects. He starred in it himself and also directed it. The shooting locations were in the Dominican Republic with its countryside, shoreline and buildings that are similar to those in Cuba.

This is a very good story about family, culture, love, loss, tragedy and freedom. It also is a window on the very beautiful music and culture that was Cuban and Havanan in the past. At the time Garcie made this film, Havana was in a terrible sate of decay. Efforts since have been made to save the city, but much of it is falling into ruin.

The film was made in English except for the songs. I don't speak Spanish, so I appreciated the English sub-titles for the music, since the lyrics of the songs are a great deal about the people and culture.

I hate to do this, because so much effort went into this movie, but I feel like I need to warn people: This movie is awful!! True, the scenes in the club are great, but the plot is laborious and the characters are unsympathetic and the director treats his audience like a kindergarten classroom. "CASTRO = BAD. Here's 16+ scenes of the communists doing bad things so that you'll get the point! Still don't get it? We'll have Che laugh maliciously just to hit the point home."

Also, the dialogue is reminiscent of Star Wars, Episode III. The lucky movie-goer will get to witness at least five scenes between totally uninteresting people where the conversation goes something like this:

"I love you"

"I love you too. *kiss* But we can never go back to the way we were."

"Why?"

"Because - things have changed."

"I know"

"I'll always love you."

*single tear* "Goodbye, so and so"

Anyway, it's really awful. Don't see it. Just buy the soundtrack.