Newsday (New York)
April 28, 2006 Friday
NASSAU AND SUFFOLK EDITION
Lost in his native Cuba
BY JOHN ANDERSON. SPECIAL TO NEWSDAY
(1 1/2 STARS) THE LOST CITY (R). Andy Garcia’s lopsided idyll about
the Havana of his boyhood and the Cuba of his dreams. With Bill
Murray, Dustin Hoffman, Inés Sastre, Tomas Milian. Written by G.
Cabrera Infante. Directed by Garcia. 2:23 (violence). At the Sunshine
Cinemas and AMC Empire, Manhattan.
When ethnic pride comes in the door, filmmaking savvy seems to jump
out the window. Two examples: Atom Egoyan’s Armenian genocide soaper,
“Ararat,” and Roman Polanski’s Warsaw ghetto melodrama, “The
Pianist,” movies wherein gifted directors were reduced to lumber
salesmen by the weight of history and the memory of their mothers.
Add to this lackluster list “The Lost City,” which was clearly a
labor of love for Andy Garcia, and for the rest of us will simply be
laborious (ta-dum). Born in Cuba, Garcia became part of the
post-Castro exodus at age 5, and “The Lost City” seems like a film
he’s been nursing in his bosom since he first sighted Miami. His
intentions are admirable, Fidel Castro being indefensible. But his
primary purpose is pushing an agenda, so the movie becomes
indefensible.
Why Garcia and screenwriter G. Cabrera Infante decided to make “The
Lost City” into a melange of “The Godfather” and “Casablanca” is
anyone’s guess. (Why would Garcia remind us he was in “Godfather:
Part III”?) Garcia plays Fico Fellove, owner of the club El Tropico
and the eldest of three brothers – each of whom will follow a
different path in the Cuban revolution. Luis (Nestor Carbonell) joins
a bourgeoise insurrection that wants to topple President Fulgencio
Batista (Juan Fernández) without handing the country over to the
untrustworthy Castro. Ricardo (Enrique Murciano) will go completely
native, adopting the khakis and beard of a true believer and turn on
his own family. (His resemblance to a movie Judas – the old Judas –
has got to be intentional).
Fico is apolitical, devoted to the music that both his club and the
movie showcase. But he’s forced, naturally, into taking a stand.
“The Lost City” might have been a tidy, well-wrought story with 45
minutes cut, but it is bloated beyond redemption. Despite
invigorating performances by Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman – the
latter as Meyer Lansky, the former as a kind of comedic Greek chorus
in shorts – the film is so transparent in its sentiments that it
can’t be taken seriously.
Once Castro comes to power, the cruelty goes nationwide. So does the
stupidity: A Castro functionary (Elizabeth Peña) orders Fico to ban
saxophones from his club, because the sax was invented by a Belgian
and Belgium had a shameful record in Africa.
Nowhere near the attention is paid to the crimes of the U.S.-backed
Batista, which is what got Castro his foothold to begin with. But
“The Lost City” isn’t history. Nor is it very good filmmaking.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
