CITY OF YOUR FINAL DESTINATION

US, 2009, 117 minutes, Colour.
Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney, Omar Metwally, Alexandra Maria Lara, Norma Aleandro, Norma Argentina, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hiroyuki Sanada.
Directed by James Ivory.

At the time of directing this film, James Ivory was nearing eighty. He has a fine body of work, from his films in India in the 1960s and 1970s, to his adaptations of the 1980s and 1990s (especially of novels by Henry James: The Europeans, The Bostonians, The Golden Bowl, and of E.M.Forster: A Room with a View, Maurice, Howard’s End), to his wider range of adaptations in later years. However, many critics and audiences have found his style, and sumptuous re-creations of period, too old-fashioned as cinema. The appropriate response is that his film-making follows classical styles. For those who follow the tradition of mocking films as ‘Merchant-Ivory heritage films’, this adaptation of a novel by Peter Cameron will be just another film. For those who have enjoyed Ivory’s talent for telling stories for adult audiences, 22 of them written by Ruth Prawer Jabvala over a period of 45 years, they will be interested in a range of different characters in an Uruguyan setting.

Omar, a young academic wants to write the biography of a one-novel success, a dead writer from Uruguay. Pushed by his girlfriend, Deidre, he finds that the family refuses to give a clearance for his work. He ventures into Uruguay and meets a strange community of family and friends and gets to know them, with the hope of persuading them. The author’s older gay brother is in favour of the project. The widow is definitely not. The mistress, with her little daughter, is also not in favour. The screenplay offers a lot of conversations, often delivered with some asperity. There is also a great deal of detail of life in this secluded part of the world. The enjoyment of the film is in responding to the characters and the performances, reflections on celebrity and privacy, as well as the development of the character of the young man.

Filmed in Argentina, there is a strong sense of the Latin American atmosphere, on the pampas, in the local towns, on the estate.

Omar Metwally is an attractive screen presence even when he is dilatory, over cautious and put upon by his girlfriend, (Alexandra Maria Lara is very good in alienating the characters and dominating Omar). The author’s brother is played with some insouciance by Anthony Hopkins with Hiroyuki Sanada as Pete his longtime companion. Laura Linney is haughtiness personified as Caroline, the widow. Charlotte Gainsbourg is quite ingenuously charming as Arden, the mistress, who has fitted into this different world and lives for her little daughter.

A lot of surface gentility. A lot of simmering passions and petty distrusts, although the film remains quite calm rather than passionate. Not an Ivory masterpiece, but interesting and entertaining straightforward storytelling.

1. The Merchant Ivory tradition? Literary adaptations? A strong narrative? Classical style?

2. The US opening, the US setting? The work of academia?

3. The contrast with Uruguay, the location photography in Argentina, the Pampas and the gauchos, the cattle? The roads, the buses? The town? The mansion, the poverty? The feel of South America? The musical score?

4. The story of a family, the parents and the camps, their migration to Uruguay, settling, the effects? The next generation and the Jewish heritage, the persecution? Adapting to Latin America, to the world? The visuals and the film of the parents, contributing to the narrative?

5. Jules and Adam, Adam’s story, his perceptions? The education, culture? International? British touch? The experiences of the two brothers? Jules, his education, his wife, mistress? Adam, his meeting Peter, Peter at fourteen, the twenty-five years of their relationship, Peter’s Japanese background?

6. Omar, in himself, the opening and caught in the swamp, leaving his shoe, his baulking at the quicksand? Deirdre, their relationship, the intensity? His uncertainty, Deirdre’s pressure, the plan, the book, the scholarship? His career? Academia? Omar and his decisions, later, his lectures, fate, not listening? Deirdre and her buying of the tickets? The family and their not giving permission for the biography?

7. Omar going to Uruguay, his arrival, being met, the surprise, the little girl, arriving at the home, the reaction because unannounced? Omar being shy, listening to people’s reactions, aware of them? The daughter and talking with her, getting the information about the family, about Arden?

8. The discussions within the family, their stances about the biography, the various reasons, Caroline and her haughtiness, her marriage, lifestyle, having an unfinished manuscript, holding on to it in secret? Arden, the mistress, her being rescued by Jules, the daughter? Living in the house, working in the garden? The whole family living together and Omar’s reaction? Caroline and the fears for her sanity, her snobbishness? Deirdre’s arrival, the guests, her leaving? With Mrs Van Euwen? Adam and the deal, the agreement? Caroline and her reaction?

9. Adam and his life, Arden and her daughter, their life, work, the school? The affairs, Caroline, Adam and Peter? Ivy and the attraction to Omar? Helping him? Taking him to the gondola? Peter and the plans?

10. Adam’s proposal for Omar to smuggle the jewellery, his agreement, Deirdre and the confrontation, her refusal?

11. The episode with the bees, Omar’s reaction, stung, hospital, Arden and her care?

12. Deirdre’s arrival, assessing the situation, her reaction to Omar, to the family, her not being liked? The issue of Adam and the smuggling? Her being pushy, her leaving?

13. Omar, his recovery, his uncertainty, his going to Caroline, her change, giving the permission? Adam and the deal, his going back to America?

14. Omar and teaching in America, the break with Deirdre? Fate, the class, the decision to return? Arden and her being upset? His going to see Adam, returning to Arden?

15. Each of the central characters settled in a new way of life: Caroline and her going to Spain, her escort? Arden and her daughter, being with Omar? Adam, Peter and his being able to develop the property?

16. Caroline and her burning the manuscript, trying to save it? What revelation about Jules?

17. The future, resolving crises? Deirdre and her meeting Caroline and her escort? The title and the final destination of each character?