Full Review

It took director Andy Garcia more than 16 years to raise money for "The Lost City" (Magnolia), the long-gestating miniepic about his native Cuba, the country his family fled when he was 5.

Perseverance is rewarded. The same could be said of viewers willing to invest in the film's lengthy running time -- they will find emotional compensation in this well-acted and deeply personal tale of love, loss and longing.

Set in 1950s' Havana (but filmed in the Dominican Republic), the story chronicles an upper-class family torn apart by political upheaval. Cuba is a tinderbox, simmering on the brink of revolution, with the Batista dictatorship squelching all calls for reform.

Caught in the gathering maelstrom is nightclub owner Fico Fellove (Garcia), the eldest son of a pacifist university professor (Tomas Milian). Fiercely nationalistic, Fico is not blind to the injustices around him. But, like his father, he refuses to embrace violence as a solution, a moral stance not shared by his two brothers, firebrand Ricardo (Enrique Murciano) and quietly militant Luis (Nestor Carbonell).

Remaining on the sidelines as his brothers take up arms, Fico watches his beloved Cuba bulldozed, along with his family's way of life, by Castro's communist revolution.

Though driven by historical events, "Lost City" is primarily a romance, as Fico -- played with shades of Humphrey Bogart's Rick in "Casablanca" -- eventually becomes involved with his sister-in-law (a ravishing Ines Sastre), after one of his brothers is killed. As used here, she is a symbol for the true object of his undying affection, the island itself.

The cast also includes a droll turn by Bill Murray as an eccentric American expatriate who works for Fico, and Dustin Hoffman as mob boss Meyer Lansky.

While the sprawling saga is somewhat unwieldy and would have benefited from some judicious pruning, Garcia's love letter is full of passion and gorgeously captures the beauty and energy of his homeland, its culture and especially its music, the last providing the film with its pulsing heartbeat.

Written by the late Guillermo Cabrera Infante (a fellow Cuban exile), "Lost City" contains only the slightest suggestion of sex and only a handful of English and Spanish expletives. The scattered, brief acts of violence are brutal but have a dramatic purpose. Otherwise, there is nothing objectionable and the film honors such old-fashioned virtues as family, patriotism, tradition and integrity, with Fico's father counseling his son that "a man's character is his destiny."

Fico's comparison of Havana to a rose applies equally well to the wistful movie: "It has petals and thorns, it all depends how you grab it, but in the end it grabs you."

The film contains some violence, including several graphic executions, a suicide, a brief voodoo reference, and a few rough and crude expressions. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults;
• A-IV**
• L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
• O -- morally offensive.