The Merchant Ivory team that brought you “Howards End,” “A Room With a View” and “The Remains of the Day,” have done it again. “City of Your Final Destination” is a delicate cinematic and literary think piece on life, art, love and change.
The protagonist, Omar, an Iranian-born graduate student, seeks permission from Gund’s three executors–Gund’s brother, Adam (Anthony Hopkins); ex-wife Caroline (Laura Linney); and former mistress Arden Langdon (Charlotte Gainsbourg)–to proceed writing the biography, though all have declined.
With his financial and collegiate future in jeopardy, Omar’s bossy, obstinate girlfriend, Deirdre (Alexandra Maria Lara), persuades him to fly to South America in pursuit of a biographer.
Arriving at the Gund estate without notice, Omar is pleasantly greeted by Arden, who invites him to stay the duration of his time in Uruguay. Also in the estate is Pete (Hiroyuki Sanada), Adam’s much younger male Asian lover of 25 years, and Gund and Arden’s daughter, Portia.
The precarious Adam, intransigent Caroline and gullible Arden live a quaint existence in Uruguay, lounging and conversing over things in a remoteness the privileged have time and money to afford. Their interactions are telling and with each conversation, Omar is able to persuade Arden to authorize the biography. However, the twist arrives with the stipulation that he smuggle in some unnamed objects back to the States.
As it often goes, the best performance is held by the film’s villainous character, and Linney shines as the disenchanted widow of Gund.
Metwally, as Omar, the more-than-once-christened young and debonair guy, doesn’t fit the bill and is adequate at best. When Omar and Arden’s mutual attraction reaches its crescendo, there’s a feeling of danger as Deirdre nearly catches them. But that climax comes across as awkward and forced.
Were it not for the sonatas, the paintings, the cinematography, the great performance of Linney, Hopkins and Gainsbourg, “City of Your Final Destination” would be little more than forgettable.
If the film is about Omar hunting for the elusive biography, he ends up adding more to his own. But as we take this journey with him, it isn’t hard to understand Caroline’s aspiration to flee to New York.
Valiantly, the screenplay, written by the longtime Merchant Ivory collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, attempts to lead us in a direction of clarity, yet even with strong dialogue, it falls short. In the end, we are left up a creek in a gondola without a paddle.
