The Lost City
Release Date:
April 28, 2006
Limited release
On the Big Board |
| Position |
Staff |
In Brief |
| 44/65 |
Kim Hollis |
There's a good movie in there, but Andy Garcia should have put more faith in his editor. See it if only for Bill Murray. |
| 75/159 |
David Mumpower |
Andy Garcia is too close to his personal project to trim the fat, but the story and music are outstanding and Bill Murray is hilarious. |
Andy Garcia sees the realization of a dream with the production of The Lost City. The film, described as a "story of love and betrayal, is set in Havana, Cuba during the 1950s. Garcia is a native of Cuba whose family came to the United States when he was five, and this has been his pet project for years now. Rather than risk someone else not realizing his vision, Garcia has chosen this production to be his first mainstream directing effort.
The Lost City is an adaptation of the Guillermo Cabrera Infante classic, Three Brothers. The book was the legendary wordsmith's first to be published in the United States. The story involves the titular trio who become players in Cuba's revolution. At the start of the book, they are under the thumb of brutal dictator Fulgencio Batista. To their surprise, though, the rising insurgent, Fidel Castro, becomes much more problematic to their daily existence than the prior regime had ever been.
The story is somewhat based upon Infante's initial support of the Castro government. At first an ambassador for the new group, he became one of Castro's harshest critics over time. The impetus was the censoring of Infante's journals. Infante went into exile in 1965 and became one of the earliest critics of the new Marxist regime and particularly its leader.
The cast for The Lost City is sensational. In addition to Garcia, who will star in addition to directing, Robert Duvall, Benicio Del Toro, Javier Bardem, Benjamin Bratt and Dustin Hoffman all make appearances. The real coup, though, is the presence of Bill Murray as an unusual character simply known as The Writer. (David Mumpower/BOP)
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