Finally a good movie.

We entered Blockbuster, walked around and selected a movie. We then headed to the check out lane and waited in line for our turn. As the employee at the register greeted us “good evening”, we looked at each other and simultaneously said “not this movie”. We returned to the shelves and took our first choice. A decision made in a split second changed our evening and allowed us to enjoy one of the best movies we had seen in a long time. Decisions like this change your life too, not just an evening. Instead of going to a football game, he had come to meet with me.

Getting back to the movie, I do not care what the critics say about it (I read some very discouraging reviews,) Lost City was well done by Andy Garcia, depicting a dramatic and historical romantic tribute to pre-revolutionary Cuba. The movie evokes memories from a world long ago; it is poetic, nostalgic, possess texture with vivid images and it is drenched in magical music. Yes, the movie does have some historical flaws and incoherencies, but nonetheless it is powerful. Perhaps I also relate to it on a different level when seeing the sense of loss, and changes associated with a person who leaves his/her home country and for a certain period of time is left stateless, with identities that have roots somewhere in the middle of both worlds.

I enjoyed it; it gave me the gift of a pleasant evening, no matter how “lost” critics have acclaimed it to be.

Jose Marti poems incorporated into the movie.
I could have found them in English, but they would loose their essence.

Yo soy un hombre sincero
De donde crece la palma,
Y antes de morirme quiero
Echar mis versos del alma.

Yo vengo de todas partes,
Y hacia todas partes voy:
Arte soy entre las artes,
En los montes, monte soy.
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Cultivo una rosa blanca
en junio como enero
para el amigo sincero
que me da su mano franca.

Y para el cruel que me arranca
el corazón con que vivo,
cardo ni ortiga cultivo;
cultivo la rosa blanca.