What potential for a good, if not great movie! On Christmas Eve 1958, a solitary high-stakes gambler travels to Havana from Key West. His intent is to organize a high-stakes poker game that will leave him well situated for life. On the ferry to Havana, he meets the wife of a wealthy Cuban physician who is smuggling arms to the revolutionaries. Upon arriving in Cuba, he saves her bacon from discovery by the authorities, and promptly falls in love with her. Havana on the eve of the revolution has an overdrive case of the nerves. Secret police, revolutionaries, gamblers and gangsters; the movie has them all.
At the helm is Sidney Pollock with actors Robert Redford, Raul Julia, Lena Olin, and Alan Arkin. And the movie falls flat on its face well before the ferry docks at Havana. And it never recovers. What goes wrong? In a sense everything, nothing seems to connect. The story lacks suspense, good dialogue, and romance. The actors go through the motions for a paycheck. The sets seem cheesy and false. What else? Give this movie a pass; it's not worth the rental.
At the helm is Sidney Pollock with actors Robert Redford, Raul Julia, Lena Olin, and Alan Arkin. And the movie falls flat on its face well before the ferry docks at Havana. And it never recovers. What goes wrong? In a sense everything, nothing seems to connect. The story lacks suspense, good dialogue, and romance. The actors go through the motions for a paycheck. The sets seem cheesy and false. What else? Give this movie a pass; it's not worth the rental.