City of Your Final Destination [DVD] [2009] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Peter Cameron's elegant, wistful novel THE CITY OF YOUR FINAL DESTINATION has been well transitioned to the screen by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and director James Ivory: in so many ways this film brings a host of fond memories of all of the films made by the members of Merchant Ivory films. It has the same sense of grace of transporting one culture into another, of examining interpersonal relationships as they are tied to etiquette and tradition and family, and the chances we take in the name of self-fulfillment and love. It is a mood piece and a delectable offering for the brain.

Omar Razaghi (Omar Metwally) is a postgraduate student and instructor at a Colorado College, living in a tenuous relationship with Deirdre (Alexandra Maria Lara), and delaying his desire to write his PhD thesis -a proposed biography of deceased novelist Jules Gund. He is unhappy with his life, frustrated that his thesis committee will not approve of his dissertation unless he has the family of Jules Gund's permission to write the biography. After a little nudge from a colleague he decides to travel to Uruguay - without Deirdre - to gain permission from the Gund family to proceed. Deirdre, hurt because Omar wants to go without her, insists that Omar travel to Uruguay: this may his only chance to step out of the life whose rut he is in and move on to higher means.

Omar journeys to Uruguay where he meets the Gund 'family' - Gund's gay brother, Adam (Anthony Hopkins) and his lover of 25 years Pete (Hiroyuki Sanada); former wife Caroline (Laura Linney); and Arden (Charlotte Gainsbourg), Gund's mistress and mother of Gund's daughter, Portia. Though greeted with hospitality it is clear that the family, as executors of Gund's estate, refuse to give Omar permission. Omar is invited to live with the Gund's until he can make arrangements to return to the US, but the visit is extended, allowing for changes to insert in the family unity as each one slowly agrees to allow Omar to write the biography. Omar has a fall, is recovered by Arden (Deirdre flies to Uruguay for support but senses the change in Omar's feelings with Arden), and during his recovery Omar awakens to what he really wants in life - love, beauty, and the freedom to express himself in all matters.

In the manner of fine story telling, there are excellent moments of passion, and comedy, and a fine dissection of family life in all its permutations. The cast is uniformly excellent, composed of such a stellar group of actors. This is a quiet adagio of a film, filled with charm, elegant cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe, and fine music - both from the classics and from contemporary writing by Jorge Drexler. This film retains the 'Merchant Ivory': and that says enough! Grady Harp, August 10

There have been some truly great films created under the Merchant/Ivory banner. More than 20 years later, I can still enthuse rapturously about sequences from "A Room With A View," "Howards End," and "The Remains of the Day." Well "The City of Your Final Destination" is the first major release by director James Ivory since his long time producing partner Ismail Merchant died in 2005, so --in my book--its arrival was quite an event. In adapting Peter Cameron's novel, screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (a frequent Merchant/Ivory collaborator who won Oscars for "Room" and "Howards End") has created a high-minded and stylish literary adaptation. Ivory has assembled a terrific cast including Laura Linney, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Norma Aleandro, and Anthony Hopkins--so, all in all, sounds like a recipe for triumph! Well, here's my rave...."I liked it." Stately and elegant, there was much that I admired about "The City of Your Final Destination"--but ultimately, the film is a little bloodless, a little inert.

When doctoral student Omar embarks on writing a biography of recently deceased author Jules Gund, he initially receives a refusal to participate from Gund's family. Pushed by his aggressive girlfriend, he decides to challenge their denial and travels to Uruguay to visit the estate they all share. The three people standing in his way are Gund's brother (Hopkins), his widow (Linney) and his mistress (Gainsbourg). Omar is soon enchanted by Gainsbourg and befriended by Hopkins, and the book deal starts to seem secondary as he is accepted into this new lifestyle. Linney, his last obstacle, holds steadfast for reasons of her own. All the actors are nice--but while Omar is affable, he is also a bit vacant. Gainsbourg and Hopkins are pleasant and Linney, as always, is lovely and strong.

My disappointments with "The City of Your Final Destination" comes from its lack of real passion or emotion. Having released only one book, Gund's legacy is treated as if he were Hemingway--and the film doesn't make a case for his literary significance. He seems to have been a unconventional sort who lived with vigor what with an at-home mistress and an unexpected suicide, but we never see anything remotely hinting at his tempestuous nature. Heck, his suicide is barely spoken of and is of little dramatic consequence--anyone looking for ANY motivation about Gund will be left hanging. The characters, especially Linney, remark that a biography would be obtrusive because it would expose the family to judgement and potential criticism. The general mantra is something akin to "No one would understand us, we don't understand ourselves." But aside from the living arrangement being slightly unusual, there is nothing about this family that is particularly scandalous or intriguing. In the film, everyone is so pleasant and polite, their dark secrets and revelations don't seem especially noteworthy.

I liked " "The City of Your Final Destination." It's gorgeous to look at, for sure, and the actors do well. But the dramatic elements fell short. It just fails to bring anything of real emotional consequence to the forefront. I never really knew or cared about Gund and the vitality of his clan was so muted as to be inconsequential. It's sophisticated and lovely, but a little empty. I doubt that I will be thinking about "City" much next month--much less in 20 years. KGHarris, 11/10.

I won't go into the plot and the faithfulness with which it treats with the details of the book from which it is derived. I have not read the book.

James Ivory does not disappoint. This is a movie which struck so many chords with me. Having visited Buenos Aires and other parts of Argentina a few years ago, I identified with the sense of elegance which the film telegraphed both in terms of the gorgeous scenery and the people that it depicted. I recall walking in Recoleta and seeing middle aged very well kept women sporting their furs with a casualness which had long been abandoned in cities like New York years ago, in response to the vociferous anti-fur lobby. But then and there I thought Buenos Aires seemed stuck in a time warp slightly out of touch with a reality that the rest of the world had long since embraced. So too in this movie. Here was a group of people tolerating each other and existing in a world not sustainable anywhere else or in any other context. The author seeking his approval for execution of his precious biography of a deceased author, had a girl friend, Deirdre, who was almost literally disparaged for being too much of the real world and out of sync with the artifice of the gracious but dated Ocho Rios estate and its well-heeled inhabitants. But it was the navigation of that world with language and costuming that was so elegant and measured, that sets this film and its great cast led by Sir Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney, Omar Metwally, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Hiroyuki Sanada, apart from the ordinary and the mundane.

This film despite being an ode to an upper class existence that most of us will never experience, confers credibility on it and makes us ordinary folk very much interested in how this all turns out for these sorry bunch of misfits bent on validating each other's existence in this finely wrought but fragile world.