A love story at its core, the tale "For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story," about the Cuban trumpeter, is told with a soft touch and an overwhelming sense of care that ensures all parties are presented in their best light. Star and exec producer Andy Garcia, a Havana native, is the right man for this job, having long shown an affinity for Cuban musicians and using his celebrity for their benefit, most notably the bassist Cachao. Yet while any story of a man and his family fleeing a country in the name of freedom has a natural dramatic arc, there isn't enough of a sense of danger or rebellion to make "For Love or Country" more than an appealing portrait of a loving couple. The onscreen chemistry between Garcia and Mia Maestro as Sandoval's wife, however, is magical throughout the telepic, giving it some resonance within the pantheon of HBO classics.

A love story at its core, the tale “For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story,” about the Cuban trumpeter, is told with a soft touch and an overwhelming sense of care that ensures all parties are presented in their best light. Star and exec producer Andy Garcia, a Havana native, is the right man for this job, having long shown an affinity for Cuban musicians and using his celebrity for their benefit, most notably the bassist Cachao. Yet while any story of a man and his family fleeing a country in the name of freedom has a natural dramatic arc, there isn’t enough of a sense of danger or rebellion to make “For Love or Country” more than an appealing portrait of a loving couple. The onscreen chemistry between Garcia and Mia Maestro as Sandoval’s wife, however, is magical throughout the telepic, giving it some resonance within the pantheon of HBO classics.

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Garcia, who more closely resembles Doc Severinsen when he puts a trumpet to his lips, exudes the tenderness and love of music that the tall and husky Sandoval embodies. The real Arturo Sandoval has never displayed a particularly fiery side — he gets the job done, just as his idol, Dizzy Gillespie, did in his later years when he befriended Sandoval and put him on the front line of his U.N. Orchestra. Garcia plays him with a similar restraint.

“For Love” quickly leaps from Havana in 1976 to Athens 1990, where the U.N. band is performing. Sandoval asks for political asylum and from there the flashback begins. (Over the course of the story, a U.S. Embassy interviewer played by David Paymer is never given much reason beyond the trumpeter’s impassioned pleas to give Sandoval passage to U.S. soil. It is, our hero says, all about the music.)

Tim Sexton’s script accurately depicts Sandoval’s career, forsaking added drama for veracity. He was a bright young star who performed for state bands, whether they be playing for the circus or events that celebrated Cuban traditions. Wanting to play jazz, which is labeled “their” (U.S.) music, he forms the pioneering band Irakere with Chucho Valdez (Nicky Farrell) and Paquito D’Rivera (Jose Zuniga), who will later be the first to defect.

Despite D’Rivera’s directive to get out of Cuba while he has no familial ties, Sandoval not only stays but hooks up with Marianela (the charming and beautiful Maestro), a divorced government worker with an 8-year-old son. As he woos her, her co-worker friend Emilia (Gloria Estefan) joins the family’s chorus of warning against the relationship. She perseveres, they marry, all is softly forgiven and Emilia becomes Marianela’s earpiece to the government.

Sandoval’s meeting with Gillespie (a relatively convincing Charles S. Dutton) occurs when the American icon demands that Cuban officials take him to the neighborhood that was home to percussionist Chano Pozo. Sandoval overhears the request, sees the government wonks at a loss and offers Gillespie a ride; that night, Gillespie is treated to a jam session wherein he discovers his driver’s true talent. (We’ll assume Gillespie isn’t asking to see Pozo — he was murdered in New York in 1948).

With Gillespie on his side, Sandoval’s world opens up as he is allowed to travel more freely and perform music that doesn’t have official government sanction. He makes friends with London club owners Johnny and Sally Lewis (Michael O’Hagan and Fionnula Flanagan) and before long, the idea of staying at home lacks logic.

Donald M. Morgan’s lensing refuses to romanticize the island nation, instead emphasizing poverty and outdated conditions from cars to offices to homes. Even as Sandoval rises up the ladder of fame — his band Irakere was world famous in the 1970s — his surroundings remain modest and, one assumes, realistic. Costuming for all characters is exceptional.

Director Joseph Sargent emphasizes the deliberate pace of Sexton’s script as if the two were creating a tribute piece rather than a dramatic work. The true drama in Sandoval’s life began where the film ends: the establishment of a home in Miami in which a penniless husband, wife and child share a bed. Then there’s the arrival three years later of Sandoval’s parents aboard an overcrowded fishing boat — and the trumpeter is performing in Japan. And finally, the refusal by American authorities to allow him to become a citizen, which, after several tries, he does. It’s all handled in an epilogue that could make for an intriguing sequel: the Cuban experience in Miami.

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For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story

HBO; Sat. Nov. 18, 9 p.m.

  • Production: Filmed in Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico, by CineSon Prods. in association with Jellybean Prods. for HBO Films. Executive producers, Andy Garcia, Jellybean Benitez; producer, Celia Costas; co-producer, Carl Valldejuli; director, Joseph Sargent; writer, Tim Sexton.
  • Crew: Camera, Donald M. Morgan; production designer, Charles C. Bennett; editor, Mike Brown; music, Arturo Sandoval; casting, Amanda Mackey Johnson, Cathy Sandrich. 2 HOURS
  • Cast: Arturo Sandoval - Andy Garcia Marianela - Mia Maestro Emilia - Gloria Estefan Embassy interviewer - David Paymer Dizzy Gillespie - Charles S. Dutton Sosa - Tomas Milian Leonel - Freddy Rodriquez Young Leonel - Andy Mendez Turi - Felix David Manrique Paquito D'Rivera - Jose Zuniga Arturo Sr. - William Marquez Angel - Steven Bauer Sally - Fionnula Flanagan Johnny Lewis - Michael O'Hagan Osvaldo - Miguel Sandoval With: Nicky Farrell, Robert Wisdom, Oswaldo Calvo, Victor Trujilo, Miriam Colon, Mario Ernesto Sanchez, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Mercedes Enriquez, Deborah Magdalena, Alfredo Alvarez Calderon.

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