The Lost City (2005 film)

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The Lost City
The Lost City film poster
Directed by	Andy García
Produced by	Andy García
Written by	G. Cabrera Infante
Starring	Andy García Dustin Hoffman Bill Murray Ines Sastre Tomas Milian
Distributed by	Lions Gate Films
Release date(s)	28 April 2006 (USA)
Running time	143 minutes
Language	English
Budget	US$9,600,000
IMDb profile

The Lost City is a 2005 film directed by Andy García.

1 Plot
2 Bill Murray as "The Writer"
3 Critical Response
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Fico Fellove (Andy Garcia) is the owner of El Tropico, a swank nightclub in late 1950s Havana. Fico lives for his family and his music, but the harsh realities of dictator Batista’s regime threaten to destroy both. Brother Ricardo (Enrique Murciano) becomes a communist while brother Luis joins the democratic opposition. His father Federico (Tomas Milian), a well respected university professor, believes that Batista should be replaced by constitutional means.

When Ricardo is arrested for anti-regime activities and threatened with execution, Fico calls upon an old prep school friend, now a police captain (Captain Castel, played by Steven Bauer), for help. Due to the intercession of Captain Castel, Ricardo is released from jail. Although Fico suggests that Ricardo go to Miami or New York for a while, Ricardo instead joins a communist rebel band headed by Che Guevara.

In addition to political intrigue, Fico is also approached by American mobster Meyer Lansky (Dustin Hoffman) who wishes to open up a gambling room at El Tropico. Fico however wishes his club to remain a place of music and turns down the offer. When a bomb later explodes at the club, killing the club’s star entertainer (who was also Fico’s love), Fico assumes the mafia were behind it. However, in the increasingly unsettled climate, he cannot be certain.

Luis meanwhile becomes connected with the plot to seize the presidential palace, kill Batista, and restore democracy to Cuba. The plot fails and most of the attackers are killed. Luis escapes but is killed later by Batista’s secret police.

At the urging of his mother, Fico begins a relationship with Luis’s widow Aurora (Ines Sastre). Fico and Aurora fall in love, but events intervene. Batista flees the country, and while Cubans rejoice over the hope for a free Cuba, Fidel Castro steps into the power vacuum. He declares that there will be no elections and Che Guevara oversees the arrests and summary execution of all those who supported the Batista regime. Among those arrested is Captain Castel. Fico seeks out his brother Ricardo, now a high ranking officer in the new regime, for help. Despite Castel having saved his life, Ricardo does nothing to prevent Castel’s summary execution.

Ricardo, who had otherwise distanced himself form his family, later visits his uncle Donoso (Richard Bradford), a tobacco farmer and cigar maker. Donoso feels that while Castro may be in power now, “the land endures” and that the farm would one day pass to Ricardo. Ricardo however, announces that the reason for his visit is to expropriate the farm for the state. In a fit of anger, Donoso has a heart attack and dies. Ricardo, overcome by grief attends the funeral and commits suicide.

The revolution also has its effects on Fico’s club. The musician’s union, now controlled by Castro, has declared the saxophone to be a capitalist instrument and forbids its use. The club is eventually closed on a flimsy pretext. After a chance meeting with Castro, Aurora is declared Widow of the Revolution of the Year and begins to work for the regime. This causes Fico and Aurora to break apart.

Seeing his family torn apart and decimated by the revolution, Fico’s parents beg him to leave Cuba and build a new family. Reluctantly, Fico prepares to leave, procuring exit visas for himself and Aurora. In a last chance to convince her to leave, Fico barges in on a reception for revolutionary leaders and Soviet block ambassadors. Aurora refuses to go. After a last toast to a free and democratic Cuba, Fico leaves the reception. He says his goodbyes to his parents (receiving his father’s prized pocket watch) and leaves Cuba. At the airport, most of his money and possessions (including his father’s watch) are taken from him.

Fico begins a new life in New York. Working as a dishwasher and piano player at a Cuban club, he hopes to save enough money to bring the remaining members of his family to America. He again meets Meyer Lansky, who now promises Fico a Cuban nightclub in Las Vegas. Fico again refuses. While cleaning up that night, he has another meeting with Aurora, in New York as part of a Cuban delegation to the United Nations. He now realizes that Aurora is Cuba, beautiful alluring, but ultimately not attainable. He decides now that his cause is to build a new life, until he can return to the city he lost.

The movie ends with Fico reciting a poem by Cuban national hero Jose Marti and opening a new nightclub in New York.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Bill Murray as "The Writer"

Bill Murray appeared in the movie as the character of "the Writer". He shows up early in the movie asking Fico for a job, and hovers around Fico, commenting on the absurdities of life, though never playing a clear part in those absurdities. According to the “making of” video, the role is similar to that of a Greek chorus and is really the personality of the movie’s author G. Cabrera Infante. According to the making of video, Murray was given some latitude in improvising dialogue – the scene toward the end where Murray and Hoffman (as Meyer Lansky) discuss egg creams was almost entirely improvised.

A frequent criticism of the film is that Murray's character seemed completely out of place in a historical/political drama. Being a caricature of the writer and Greek chorus character seemed like a strange example of metafiction in an otherwise conventional movie.

[edit] Critical Response

While receiving a "rotten" 24% rating on RottenTomatoes.com with 70 counted reviews, The Lost City scored a 7.0/10 stars on the Internet Movie Database with 2,652 votes as of December 18, 2006. Ebert & Roeper gave it "Two thumbs up".