The Lost City Review

Cuban-born Garcia’s good-looking, passionate directorial debut — made in ’05 and belatedly released, we suspect, to get in on the buzz for Che, who figures in this — presents a romanticised Havana amid La Revolución of 1959. A cracking cast of American Latinos plus Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman feature in a tale of three brothers torn apart in violent political upheaval. Garcia gives us a glamorous, vibrant Havana full of music, dance, hot chicas and cool cars, but even by family-saga standards this is maddeningly overlong. And the central love story (Garcia’s responsible eldest bro falls for heroic fallen middle bro’s widow) is so corny, it drags the whole film down with it. Pity.