The City of your Final Destination: Review

When a film can transport a viewer to another world is a great experience. James Ivory's "The City of your Final Destination", did that just for me yesterday. I had an intense week and I almost didn't go to the theater, but sometimes I have to. The film was screened at my favorite theatre in Los Angeles at the Laemlle Royal Theater on Santa Monica Blvd. A theater that is a single and has a gigantic double sided marquee of the feature. There are twinkling lights that enunciate the Royal. Last night the crowd was older and mostly over sixty. The best part was everyone stayed completely quiet during the feature.

James Ivory is a fantastic director. The film "The City of your Final Destination", takes the viewer on an artistic journey of an academic going to South America to write a biography about a deceased writer. From the opening sound of the leaves rustling with the wind into a shot of huge eucalyptus trees lining the road to the compound the film is visually arresting. Filmed in the federal district of Buenos Aires, Argentina it was gorgeous. The viewer feels the director is showing them a location of an area that is so far away and never before been seen. The story is intriguing, but becomes meaningless when I am compounded with that much beauty. When Wong Kar Wai films America in "My Blue Berry Nights" I have never seen a noir subway in New York with a lime green pigment like that. Or when Terrence Mallick captures the forests of Roanoke Virginia with natural light that look like a painting it moves me. Ivory is in the same company with these colossal directors in terms of creating a visual pleasure cake. If a film becomes that good visually the director can hold me by the ankle upside down and shake out my money.

In this oasis of South America he captures a compound of reclusive characters. Sir Anthony Hopkins portrays the brother of a deceased writer and is in top form. Charlotte Gainsbourg prior to her artistic base jump as the lead for Von Trier's "Antichrist" plays the former mistress of the writer. She is a naive woman who seems bored with her environment and is looking for erotic excitement. However, the show stopper of film is Ms. Laura Linney who plays the widow. Linney is a reclusive powerhouse who is obsessed with control in a cut off world. For the other characters and the academic writer who intrudes on their estate, they seem to be entranced in this utopia. Linney from the beginning feels like she is trapped in a South American dungeon of oppressive torture. She does not whine, but lashes out at the weaker characters like a hydra.
Linney's hair is gelled back and her wardrobe could impress any fashionista. One of the early images we see of her is she is obsessively trying to match a necklace to her shirt. She paints and drinks in excess to escape her predicament. In every scene she is driven to control every action of the others. For example, she commands Alexandra Maria Lara to sit down. Lara asks to move a painting to get the chair. Linney responds with a yes. Lara moves the painting and goes to sit down. Linney then asks her to move the painting just a little bit more to the left. Linney's character is fascinating she is a fusion of Ann Margaret in "Great Expectations", Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard", Jackie O and Sharon Stone in "Basic Instinct." She is a power broking woman who is caught in an unbearable situation.

In reviewing films plot is often times boring because the main thing that interests me is how did the movie make me feel. After viewing "The City of your Final Destination" I was transported back to Earth and reminded of Coppola's recent artistic features "Tetro" also in Argentina and "Youth Without Youth" also starred Alexandra Maria Lara. I realized that with art it is so important to take risks even if they fail. A line directly from the film and that academia can sometimes lead people to tunnel vision and completely distort their reality. Interpersonal communication can be crushed by a pure academic drive. Thanks to Ivory I could go to sleep knowing that someone out there is still shooting for the stars and not afraid to fall.