Director's passion never reaches the audience in 'The Lost City'

Beware of pet projects that gestate too long.

Andy Garcia has wanted to make "The Lost City," his tribute to the Havana that vanished in 1959 as Batista departed and Castro took power, for almost two decades. And here it finally is, with Garcia as producer, director, star, and he composed the music.

Lionsgate Films 'The Lost City' C- The verdict: Loser movie. Director: Andy Garcia Starring: Steven Bauer, Andy Garcia, Richard Bradford, Nestor Carbonell, Lorena Feijoo, Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray, Enrique Murciano, Inés Sastre, Tomas Milian Run time: 138 minutes Release date: April 28, 2006 Rating: R for violence. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Lost City'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Garcia plays Rick ... I mean, Fico, the cynical, apolitical owner of the hippest nightclub in town, the El Tropico. He doesn't care about Batista's despotism or Castro's communism. He just wants to keep his club open, the drinks flowing, the showgirls dancing and leave the politics to someone else.

But as we well know, that's not gonna happen, and before you can say, "Play it, Sam," Fico is dragged into the conflict. His patrician father (Tomas Milian), an enlightened, well-off college professor, thinks the whole thing will blow over, making room for some sort of vaguely democratic constitution. But the other sons, Luis (Nestor Carbonell) and Ricardo (Enrique Murciano), support the revolution. Whether Fico likes it or not, the political becomes personal. Especially personal when Luis disappears, leaving his gorgeous wife, Aurora (Inés Sastre), to be comforted by Fico.

Lending their star power — though no particular punch — to the picture are Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray. Hoffman appears as the gangster Meyer Lansky, who wants to make Fico one of those offers he can't refuse. Murray, whose character is only known as the Writer, hangs around wearing Bermuda shorts and making bad jokes like, "I'm a stand-up comic who prefers to remain seated."

Garcia's passion for his project and his ambition are achingly clear, but the movie never pulls together into something coherent, either emotionally or dramatically. Mostly, it plays as a pastiche of other, better movies. From "Cabaret" come the cynical emcee and the nightclub scenes mirroring the mayhem outside; from "The Godfather: Part II," the attempt at an extended family saga (and Meyer Lansky, too); from "Doctor Zhivago," the portrait of a reasonable man caught up in unreasonable times. And, of course, just about everything else is from "Casablanca," except the earlier film's great dialogue and unforgettable characters.

"The Lost City" has its pleasures, most particularly the wonderful Cuban music and the colorful bustle of Havana itself (played here by the Dominican Republic).

But film is somehow simultaneously too much and not enough. At 143 minutes, it well overstays its welcome as a movie, but with a little more fleshing out it might have worked as a miniseries.

As is, it's somewhere in between, imploring us to feel things we simply can't about people we don't really know. Eventually, this "Lost City" ends up a lost cause.