Reportedly James Ivory’s final feature as a director, “The City of Your Final Destination” (shot in 2006, after the death of his longtime partner, Ismail Merchant) has an excellent cast, but once again finds the master of period comedy-dramas such as “A Room With a View” not entirely comfortable in a contemporary setting.
Omar Metwally (“Rendition”) plays an Iranian-born grad student from Colorado who needs to secure permission for an authorized biography of a famous author who has killed himself. Turned down via letter by the writer’s three heirs, the student shows up uninvited at their remote estate in Uruguay, where he’s welcomed with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
The author’s wary widow (Laura Linney) is chilly, his mistress (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is ambiguously flirtatious, and the writer’s older brother (Anthony Hopkins) and his Japanese gay lover (Hiroyuki Sanada) are gracious, supportive hosts.
An accident leads to the arrival of our hero’s overbearing girlfriend (Alexandra Maria Lara). But in the hands of Ivory and his longtime screenwriter, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, this long and overly genteel adaptation of Peter Cameron’s 2002 novel never quite comes to a boil.