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The Lost City
Metascore
47 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 23 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 23
  3. Negative: 4 out of 23
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    The movie evokes that long-ago world carefully and with a certain poetry; it was shot in the Dominican Republic. There is a lot of music, much of it from the period and performed by the same musicians or their successors.
  2. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    75
    Throbbing with music, seething with anger and romance, The Lost City is a film that breaks your heart, bewilders, alienates and ravishes you by turns.
  3. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    70
    Some of the tropes of The Lost City are ineffective. What does work is the sense of loss. The late Cuban novelist and screenwriter G. Cabrera Infante finds a brilliant device in the love affair between Fico and Aurora (Ines Sastre), his sister-in-law, in that Aurora in some way becomes Cuba.
  4. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    67
    What keeps the film watchable, aside from the vibrant musical numbers in the nightclub, is Garcia's obvious love for the Cuba of his ancestors, of his dreams. A lot goes wrong in this overlong movie, but it has a human touch.
  5. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    67
    Watching The Lost City is like falling into a delirious dream on a marathon train ride only to be roused every 15 minutes by a conductor punching your ticket or barking out the next stop.
  6. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Sheri Linden
    60
    A handsome production but one that struggles to integrate its various elements -- cabaret-society glamour, intellectual fervor, family drama, impossible romance and droll humor.
  7. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    50
    Falls far short of the sweep, complexity and passion it seeks.
  8. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    50
    When an intensely emotional scene calls for the voice to break, call in Andy Garcia. He does the best voice-breaking, half-choked sob of anguish in the business, and he does it a lot in Lost City, his well-meaning directorial debut.
  9. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    The story may be scattered and sagging and the picture may have little emotional impact -- certainly nothing to justify the epic running time -- but Garcia at least succeeds in making Havana in the 1950s seem like a vibrant, special place. He doesn't exactly make the audience care, but he does make the audience understand why he cares, and that's something.
  10. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    Bill Murray plays the secondary role of a nameless American gag writer brimming with one-liners about the absurdity of Cuban life, Dustin Hoffman has a cameo as kvetching gangster Meyer Lansky.
  11. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    50
    Even though the movie is made with an abundance of heart, it's sad to report that the final result has only a weak pulse.
  12. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    50
    Though the filmmaker's feel for his Cuban heritage is bone-deep, it's a glazed and dolorous movie - a depressed epic.
  13. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    50
    For all the color and lively music, it's an overlong, messy labor of love built on a sense of personal betrayal that rings hollow.
  14. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Tim Grierson
    50
    Compelling in fits and starts, actor-director Andy Garcia's The Lost City possesses grand aspirations but troublesome execution.
  15. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Mark Olsen
    50
    In an era when so many films are cynical, cash-grabbing mechanisms of global corporate culture, no more and no less, it is frustrating to come across a work such as this, in which the grasp-exceeding reach and reckless vision of its creators become the biggest drawbacks rather than the film's greatest assets.
  16. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    50
    In its groggy way The Lost City holds your attention. Incoherent, but splendidly panoramic and drenched in wonderful Cuban music, it has the texture of a vivid, intoxicating dream that seems to mean something until you wake up and feel it slipping away. All that remains are feelings and impressions connected by a mood.
  17. Variety
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    50
    A handsomely produced, deeply passionate, but seriously flawed historical epic whose reach far exceeds its grasp. Somewhere inside this overlong, sometimes engaging, often tedious affair, there may be a solid, 100-minute movie.
  18. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    50
    Garcia seems to be aping the "Godfather" movies and Warren Beatty's "Reds," but the movie's gracefulness is limited to its handling of the music (some of which Garcia wrote).
  19. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    42
    Garcia might have thought he was making a Cuban "Casablanca," but his big, empty spectacle amounts to less than a hill of beans.
  20. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    38
    The lower orders seem to have been left out of The Lost City -- there just aren't any poor characters -- which for a movie about a workers' revolution seems downright slipshod.
  21. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    30
    Garcia's tale bemoans the loss of easy wealth for a precious few. Poor people are absolutely absent; Garcia and Infante seem to have thought that peasant revolutions happen for no particular reason--or at least no reason the moneyed 1 percent should have to worry about.
  22. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    25
    Sometimes there's a fine line between a labor of love and a vanity project, and The Lost City, Andy Garcia's heartfelt - but hackneyed and interminable - love letter to his native Cuba, repeatedly crosses it.
  23. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    25
    The Lost City is Andy Garcia's ballad to Havana during the Cuban revolution. You'll have to forgive the penthouse view, though -- it's the only one Garcia can seem to find.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.3 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 48 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 32
  3. Negative: 4 out of 32
  1. ManoloE.
    8
    I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, with two exceptons that I will elaborate on later. The music and cinematography in the movie was extraordinary, as well as the sets used in the making of the movie. The sets and costumes lend to the feel of the movie, just as the Casablanca set and costumes did for that movie; it transports you to that place and time. Now to the two exceptions that keep me from giving the movie a higher score: I understand that the writer included Bill Murray's character as a sort of subconscious of the writer and as a way to keep those not interested in the storyline from walking out of the theatres. Truth be told, the Murray character actually detracts from the real story and the seriousness of the same. The second issue deals with the portrayal of President Batista as a sort of comical figure (combing his eyebrows with a comb and spit, making comical remarks to his butler, etc.). Anyone who has read about Fulgencio Batista will tell you that he was far from being that way; if anything, he was at the other end of the spectrum; he was a former military leader who really had little time for distractions or joking around. My take on this portrayal of Batista, is that this was Andy Garcia's way of trying to convince the audience that he is not an opologist for Batista or what he represents. Whatever the reason, this detracts from the movie. At some point, Garcia needed to decide if he wanted to make a serious social movie with a historical background, a comedy or a love story. At times you can combine two of those categories, not all three. My mother's family in pre-Castro Cuba were basically rural farmers whom made a humble living from the crops they harvested, and they were happy living that way. My father 's family were middle class, and they lived a good tranquil life, just like Americans did in 1959 (except for the occasional bomb being set on busses, theatres and other p[laces by Fidel's militia). Having said that, I can tell you without hesitation, that the Cuban revolution had very little to do with the poor and any struggles they might have had, and unlike the newspaper accounts of the ultraliberal New York Times of that era, Fidel and his henchman were far from being "Robin Hoods" ("Robbing Hoods" is more like it). The Cuban revolution was financed by the rich and upper-middle class, whom felt that the U.S. had too many interests in Cuba at the time, and they felt they were being left behind. As was pointed out in a previous post, if you analyze who made up Fidel's cabinet after the revolution, they were members of the upper and upper-middle class (Doctors, accountants, politicians, etc.). What the revolution ultimately accomplished was to push the U.S. out of Cuba, in favor of the Soviet Union. The protagonists of the revolution (Fidel & company) did nothing else but turn Cuba into a socialist nation in which there would only be one class of people, wherein no one had anything (the exception were a privileged few, made up of Fidel's immediate group). Land, businesses and properties were taken from their rightful owners and given to those who were responsible for the overthrow of the government, every block had a "snitch" to report any type of activity that might go against the revolutionary government and family members turned on each other as portrayed in the movie. What I liked the most about the movie is that it portrays people as they were, "Che" Guevara as a ruthless assassin, not the romanticized freedom fighter he has been erroneously portrayed as in other movies , such as the Motorcycle Diaries. Andy Garcia balances things out and remains factual with history, as evidenced by his portrayal of two members of Batista's secret police who were ruthless in their own right. This is a balanced account of reality as it was during and after the revolution! It's a shame that the movie critics did not study the history of the Cuban revolution prior to writing their reviews of the film; had they done so, they may have rated the movie differently. I highly recommend you see this movie!… Full Review »
  2. AmyB.
    10
    Mr Garcia i loved this movie, What a moving love story. I love Cuban food, music,culture and you really captured it all . I have been to Cuba, its sad what happened their.… Full Review »
  3. jrm
    10
    Generally not a fan of Garcia but this film is absolutely fantastic. Plot, history and especially characters are unforgettable.
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