Although I wince at insulting such masters of beauty as Ivory and Jhabvala......
Director James Ivory and writer Ruth Jhabvala have teamed again to create an
extravagantly beautiful atmosphere for their new film "The City of Your Final
Destination." We feel the rain, the texture of the country driveway, the
neglected overgrowth of the bushes, the isolation of the principals. By the time
we have reached the two houses of the family Gund, we have soaked up the message
the filmmakers are sending us. Drama in isolation.
Omar Razaghi
(Omar Metwally) is an American college professor who has decided to write a
biography of the Uruguayan writer Jules Gund. In spite of repeated refusals by
Gund's family, Omar goes to Uruguay and arrives unannounced at Ocho Rios, the
remote family compound. The family? Gund's brother Adam (Anthony Hopkins) lives
in one compound house with his lover Pete (Hiroyuki Sanada). Gund's widow
Caroline (Laura Linney), his mistress Arden (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her young
daughter Portia (fathered by Jules Gund) live across the overgrown lawn. On
occasional visits to town, one or all r run into another of Gund's mistresses
(Norma Aleandro) who could be a rich source of biographical material for the
professor.
This
intriguing premise and James Ivory's marvelous sense of place are marred by
unfortunate casting and a bewildering tone deafness on the part of the
filmmakers toward their characters. Ivory and Jhabvala's unerring eye for visual
beauty seems to short circuit their grasp of human behavior.
Actor Omar
Metwally who plays Omar the professor/biographer, looks and acts more like a
student than a teacher - a nice young fellow far too naive to be up to his big
task. Omar has a girlfriend, Deirdre (Alexandra Maria Lara), an ambitious fellow
New York professor whose domineering influence on Omar further undermines his
stature. Since the two are not plausible as a couple, the story sinks right
along with Omar's own credibility.
Laura Linney
never softens the acerbic front she puts forth to all comers as the widow Gund.
She is too smart, too strong to remain embittered for so long. If her character,
Caroline, had been deposited in this isolation by marriage, she would sooner or
later have fled. These casting problems so diminish the story that the final
scenes simply do not work.
I learned
long ago how unpleasant it feels to criticize the work of accomplished
filmmakers from other cultures. Although I wince at insulting such masters of
beauty as Ivory and Jhabvala, I suggest without embarrassment that they need a
first rate advisor when they cast American actors.
That noted,
it is pure pleasure to watch Anthony Hopkins' Adam live his life out in exactly
the way and place he has chosen, and to sink with pleasure into the isolated
retreat that has seen so much drama. Our imaginations conjure the past from the
sense of place so richly drawn by Ivory and Jhabvala. We are right there in
Uruguay - in a terrific short story, but with the wrong characters.
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