Review: The City of Your Final Destination

Film:  The City of Your Final Destination

Starring:  Anthony Hopkins, Omar Metwally, Laura Linney, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hiroyuki Sanada, Norma Aleandro, Alexandra Maria Lara

Director: James Ivory

Screenwriter: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Novelist: Peter Cameron

Produced and Distributed by: Merchant Ivory Films

I watched this film the other night at a preview screening, and I felt like I was watching something I had seen before.  The opening credits looked so familiar to me.  However, once the action started I realized it wasn’t something I had seen, and yet the familiarity remained.

The plot is one that’s been played out before.  A stranger intrudes into the lives of a family who in this case have shut themselves away from the outside world.  Other films may depict these people as being trapped only in their own minds, while this one shows them locked away – either by choice or by circumstance – in a remote mansion in Uruguay.  Granted, these people are wrapped up with their own issues, hiding away from the world, and at times seemingly hiding some deep dark secret.  However, as with other films of this ilk, they soon learn from the stranger, and the stranger in this case learns from the family.

And so that’s it in a nutshell without giving you any details or spoiling the plot for you.

The familiarity of this premise, the similarity in plot disappointed me a little.  It made the film too predictable for me.  Anyone who has seen these kinds of movies knows what will eventually happen in a broad sense:  Someone will change, lives will alter.  And In some ways you can tell from the beginning whether it’ll end happily or not.

When I hear the name Merchant Ivory, I think of grandiose, costume dramas.  And while they have done some modern films, and do them quite effectively, this one felt very low budget.  However, given the the locale, I'm trying to accept the possibility that the quality of the cinematography was intentional to make us feel like we’re there in that countryside with these people.

The acting is very well done, however, although while I like Laura Linney, I find her playing one of two character types in most of her films:  the neurotic or the bitchy.  Sometimes she plays both.  I won’t tell you which one she is here, in case you want to see this movie.  I will say that her character is the only American living full-time in the house having married the late writer Jules Gund, a German who fled Nazism with his parents and older brother in WWII.

Jules was a novelist, although he had only written one book, The Gondola.  Still, his life and his death interest Omar (Omar Metwally) who travels to Uruguay from Coloroado with the goal of obtaining the family’s authorization for him to write a biography of the reclusive author.

Omar is a nice young man, who is very polite and considerate, and perhaps a bit in need of a backbone.  He often struggles with assertiveness, somewhat stubborn and proud trying to show he can handle himself, but he doesn’t always succeed.

Omar is the exact opposite of his bossy girlfriend, Diedre (Alexandra Maria Lara), who orders hm around like a strict parent.

We soon meet the residents of the Gund household in Uruguay (anyone remember the popular stuffed animal in the 1980’s?  “Gotta get a Gund!”  Imagine that ringing in Omar’s head for the entire trip to the country).

In addition to Caroline (Linney), there’s Arden (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a British waif with a romantic spirit.  She has a smart, pretty young daughter named Portia.  There’s also Adam (Antony Hopkins), Jules’s older brother, a gay man who worries that his lover of 25 years, Pete (Hiroyuki Sanada), is throwing his life away by staying with him.

This film had some really nice moments, like the scene between Adam and Pete where they discuss their relationship.  In fact all the scenes with Antony Hopkins were my favorites.   Hiroyuki Sanada is great, too, and very nice on the eyes.

All the characters, but one, are likeable.  I won’t say whom in case you decide to go see this film.

There were times when I couldn’t tell if this was supposed to be a comedy or not.  There were a few funny scenes, and others seemed like a weak attempt at comedy, but no one in the theatre laughed, including me.  Omar occasionally comes across as a misfit, but a loveable one, but his fumbles seemed like an attempt at humor.  And some of the witty dialog is more amusing than funny.  Other scenes seemed forced.

Based on a novel by Peter Cameron, this film seemed filled with holes.  I know that most adadptations leave out things that are elaborated in the original novels, but this film seemed to gloss over things too much, or hint at subjects that were either skipped or edited out for length.

For example, the explanation behind Jules’s death seemed weak to me.  It didn’t make sense, and in some ways it almost sounded like a joke.  At one point after the revelation there’s a mental image flashed on the screen for a moment, depicting what apparently was the cause of Jules's demise.  Sadly, it looked comical, but no one laughed.  Also, there was no real climactic scene in this film.  Everything seemed to be played down.

I found it ironic that Diedre was either German or Austrian, given the accent she had, and yet that wasn’t even touched upon.  Given the fact that the Gunds were German, I thought it would make for an interesting analysis, but perhaps this was left for the audience to ponder.   Instead Diedre seemed like a deer in headlights, despite her dogged and unwavering determination.  Either way, I felt like so much more could have been explored in this film that just wasn’t.

Speaking of which, the ending seemed forced and rushed.  Nothing seemed to make sense.  Why did he wait so long?  Did he feel guilty?  An English Lit professor who can’t write a letter, and yet wanted to write a biography?  And what did this have to do with a dog in a swamp?

Don’t get me wrong.  If you don’t think too much it’s an entertaining film to just sit through and observe, but  it’s a two hour movie and it did start to drag at some point, especially when I had an idea of how it would end.  It was just getting there that didn’t quite work totally for me.

After the film the costume designer (Carol Ramsey) answered questions about her work on the project.  She had worked on six Merchant Ivory films, each one having a different feel and mood in the wardrobe.  One thing she said that puzzled me was that they went to Argentina to research wardrobe and culture, rather than Uruguay, where the filming took place.  Argentina was where they filmed the movie.


Carol was a very interesting speaker, and I often enjoy the guests at this series, whether they're actors (Woody Harrelson visited last year promoting The Messenger), or crew.

Carol talked about how she usually has ten weeks prior to filming to do the costumes.  The wardrobe in this film consisted of designer pieces, local Argentinian fashions, and items made by Carol herself.  One dress she designed had so much material in the skirt that it weighed down the dress and stretched the material on the hanger, making it too long for Charlotte to wear.  It took Carol over an hour to trim the length of the skirt.  She showed us the spool of the fabric which was roughly 50 yards long.  Incredible!

~Monica

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