tcab The City of Your Final Destination is an excellent, intelligent, adult movie about believable people. The behavior and motivations of the characters are brilliantly presented; totally real people with real emotions and mature concerns. These days we could die waiting for this kind of great movie to come along! The meaning of the word "adult" with reference to movies should be changed to describe this kind of movie rather than the pornography genre that now carries that appellation. What the industry calls "adult" should be changed to "adolescent," a more appropriate term for pornography, so the word "adult" could be freed up to describe movies of this maturity and quality. At least 90% of Hollywood's output is banal commercial junk. But in this movie there are no car chases, barroom brawls, drug addicts, topless bars, shooting and killing, corrupt cops, liars, cheats, con men, muscle men, superheroes, martial arts, gratuitous sex, pretty-faced vapid ingenues trying to pass for professional people such as doctors and scientists, and so on. They even kept the cigarette-smoking to a minimum! But don't mistake my objection to Hollywood as moralistic. I'm talking about intelligence, taste and maturity.

simona gianotti James Ivory proves to be a guarantee of grace when trying to render the complexity of those novels where the evocative power of the word must be translated into the visual form. The result, in this movie, like in his previous adaptations of great literary classics, is an elegant and graceful transposition of the novel by Peter Cameron. I read it some years ago, and watching the movie allowed me to recall it, not only from the point of view of the plot (which was not totally respected, indeed), but what gradually emerged in my mind was the subtle emotional tension running through it from the beginning. It is a novel full of drama, passion, inner conflicts, emerging gradually, almost softly, through rapid but effective dialogues, where each word is a powerful means, and as the movie proves adherence to this pattern, we gradually get into the emotional world of this strange family, and feel a strong involvement. Ivory's style remains the same as usual: elegant photography, careful screenplay, care for the single detail, little but significant musical underlining. The only limit is the hasty final movement towards a happy ending, which gives little justice to the novel, mainly to the character of Omar, who eventually find his own path in a too hasty way. And also the complex character of Caroline is not fully respected in the way the real motivations behind her first choice were cut off from the movie, thus depriving her of some more depth, evident in the novel. Talented acting, mainly from female cast (but Anthony Hopkins proves always impeccable) supports the overall high quality of the movie: everyone is so fit for his/her role, that having read the novel, I think no better cast could have been chosen. A refined movie, which however urges to go back to the novel in order to clear up some unconvincing points.

tigerfish50 The basic premise of "The City of Your Final Destination" is almost identical to "The Aspern Papers". Omar, a professor of literature at a provincial US college, plans to write the biography of an author who has committed suicide, but the deceased man's widow, mistress and brother refuse to authorize his project. Omar leaves his bossy girlfriend Deirdre in the US, and travels to Uruguay to persuade the eccentric trio to change their minds. On arrival, he finds them living in uneasy bohemian splendor at their ranch estate. Inexplicably Omar is invited to stay, and is soon attracted to the author's former mistress, even though this complication might endanger his literary quest.The film's chief weakness becomes sharply apparent at this point - Ivory and Jhabvala seem unsure whether they are making a drama or a comedy. Laura Linney's widow Caroline attempts to keep a foot in both camps, while Anthony Hopkins opts for comedy and hams it up as the gay brother. The romantic element sputters weakly as Charlotte Gainsbourg's ex-mistress tries to make something of the tepid intrigue provided by the script. The literary authorization fizzles away into a non-event as the film zigzags unconvincingly between the various genres - and by the time the confused Omar has fallen off a ladder and into a coma, requiring the arrival of humorless Deirdre to nurse him back to health, it's clear the film has irretrievably lost its way. Eventually, everything wrapped up in a moldy blanket of romantic comedy when a pair of damp lovers embrace their predictable fate in a torrential rainstorm.

FilmRap For more than 40 years director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant have been bringing forth signature films with screenplays written and adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Two years after the death of Merchant, the remaining team has created a film worthy of the genre, which took three more years to be released. Every frame is a masterpiece color photograph with period and location magnificently depicted. The story here is about Omar (Omar Metwally) a mid-western university doctoral student who has a grant to write a biography of a Latin American writer who had committed suicide. He takes temporary leave of Deidre (Alexandra Maria Lara), his controlling girl friend to travel to the beautiful Uruguay countryside in order to try to convince the executers of the writer's estate to authorize the biography. He finds the deceased writer's widow (Laura Linnley), the writer's girl friend Arden (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and the 8 year old daughter she had with him, the gay brother of the writer (Anthony Hopkins ) along with his lover (Hiroyuki Sanada ) who has been with him since he adopted him at age 15, all living together on a magnificent ranch estate miles from nowhere. The movie becomes a study of the personalities of this group and the dynamics between them. It also follows and explores the emotions of the would be biographer as he rather quickly develops feelings for Adrenia which leaves him with some important choices to make. A very effective ending allows you to come away from the movie realizing that everyone has decisions to make, which may make life better in ways never thought possible.