I am a huge fan of Peter Cameron’s novel The City of Your Final Desination, so I was looking forward to James Ivory’s adaptation of the same name. The main story follows the journey of a young man finding his own path and stepping out from under the shadows of others whom he allowed to chart his path for him. That man is Omar, a young man trying to write a biography of a renowned author in order to complete his education. The problem is, the author has killed himself, and the executors of his will, his brother, his wife, and his mistress have denied his request. At the urging of his girlfriend, Omar travels to South America to try and convince the executors to change their mind. Along the way, he instead discovers a way to stand up for himself and lead his life the way he wants to. "That said, the strength of both the novel and the film is the sparkling, witty, and intelligent dialogue and characterization of the three executors, and the three actors, Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney and Charlotte Gainsbourg do a phenomenal job bringing these characters to riveting life. Unfortunately their performances tend to overshadow the main story. It’s especially touch to maintain the thread of Omar’s story when he is missing from much of the third quarter of the film. Still, between the stellar performances of the three actors mentioned, as well as the rest of the cast, a spectacular use of location, and a strong screenplay, THE CITY OF YOUR FINAL DESTINATION is well worth viewing. And Laura Linney is just delicious.

Boring.

Not spectacular, but I watched it without any expectations & found it a solid movie. It's not tragic, not even overly dramatic, but what's good about it are the individual performances, notably Linney & Hopkins. It was worth it for a single scene in which Hopkins mischievously asks the killjoy girlfriend if she'll look back & regret "Why didn't I smuggle those things?".

I felt that the dialogue was rather stilted. Also, the title doesn't seem to have anything do to with movie.

Merchant Ivory films are some of my all-time favourites...however, this fell somewhat short of that mark. I loved the atmosphere of the setting: Uruguay - sultry, exotic and the story was interesting. What didn't work so much for me was the acting. Anthony Hopkins and Laura Linney were terrific, but the main character Omar didn't cut it at all.