The City of Your Final Destination (James Ivory, 2009)

[jorencain]

I have seen no discussion about James Ivory's latest, "The City of Your Final Destination." Has anyone seen this? I'm a fan of his films (even including "Le Divorce" and "The White Countess") and am certainly interested in checking this one out. I didn't even realize it had gotten a theatrical release (it's being released in a few weeks on DVD). It's probably not a good sign that the film has completely flown under the radar, but I'm still holding out hope.

[manicsounds]

DVDTalk has a review of the screener copy DVD. I remember there was an issue with Anthony Hopkins salary, and some other problems getting the movie out. I'm still interested. I happen to like the modern Merchant Ivory films (although I can't care for Le Divorce), and I think "The White Countess" is very underrated.

[solaris72]

I'm rather shocked that Merchant Ivory made a Final Destination movie.

[Roger Ryan]

I'm rather shocked that Merchant Ivory made a Final Destination movie.

Yes, everyone passes away very quietly, mostly off-camera.

[Brian C]

I liked The White Countess also.

The City of Your Final Destination has good performances by Laura Linney and Charlotte Gainsbourg, and also Hiroyuki Sanada in a supporting role. There's also a somewhat more engaged performance by Hopkins than we've been seeing from him lately, but the central character, played by Omar Metwally, is just not very interesting. I get impatient with movies like this that build a movie around an audience surrogate for no real reason, and in this case it makes for a very awkward premise because of the need to shoehorn him into a situation where he doesn't really belong and has no insight into. It seems to me like it would have been easier to make the movie about the actual interesting characters, and make the Metwally character more of a supporting, incidental player.

Still, I enjoyed it. The family dynamics between Linney, Gainsbourg, Hopkins and Sanada are well developed. It's clear that they've long run their course, but which gives the film its poignancy, as we watch the last vestiges of their lives together crumble. I wish that this hadn't all been framed as a way to get Metwally laid, but it is what it is.

[kougogo]

The City of Your Final Destination has good performances by Laura Linney and Charlotte Gainsbourg, and also Hiroyuki Sanada in a supporting role. There's also a somewhat more engaged performance by Hopkins than we've been seeing from him lately, but the central character, played by Omar Metwally, is just not very interesting. I get impatient with movies like this that build a movie around an audience surrogate for no real reason, and in this case it makes for a very awkward premise because of the need to shoehorn him into a situation where he doesn't really belong and has no insight into. It seems to me like it would have been easier to make the movie about the actual interesting characters, and make the Metwally character more of a supporting, incidental player.

I agree with you that most of the performances in this film are pretty amazing. Laura Linney especially for me, and her big scene with Alexandria Maria Lara, who plays the Omar Metwally character's girlfriend, is phenomenal. The central character is definitely underdeveloped and passive - but I'm not sure he's quite an audience surrogate.

Spoiler

Isn't Omar's passivity more a result of his girlfriend's overwhelming nature? The fact that she pressures him into going to Uruguay and see the Gund heirs without their permission really sticks in my mind. The Gund estate isn't a situation he belongs in. By extension, a lot of the characters he meets in Uruguay - the brother, the widow - have personalities that are just as forceful, and they influence or manipulate him as well. I guess it still doensn't change the fact that he's kind of a boring character, but there are narrative reasons for it. I'm kind of a big fan of the novel this film's based on though, and the novel makes this point more subtly/clearer.

[inneyp]

I really liked the film. I saw Omar as a sort of Nick Carroway, with Gund being his Gatsby. The fact that he was coming in as a biographer justified his passivity for me. His job was to listen.

[manicsounds]

The disc itself has a disclaimer saying how the extras are from bad quality sources, and they weren't kidding. If you watch the 20 minute makin-of, it looks like a terrible youtube video or a bad skype call. Aspect ratio is all over the place, sometimes fine, sometimes squashed, non-anamorphic, macroblocky, strobed effects with bad transfering. What an EPK...