The City of Your Final Destination

Genteel adaptation of Peter Cameron's 2002 novel that's best enjoyed by fans of Merchant/Ivory productions. Doctoral student Omar's (Metwally) university career is in jeopardy when his request to write an authorized biography of writer Jules Gund is turned down by Gund's heirs. So Omar travels to the Gund estate in Ochos Rios, Uruguay to persuade Gund's brittle widow Caroline (Linney), mistress Arden (Gainsbourg), and older brother Adam (Hopkins) to let him do the work after all. The lush-looking pic, with a generally accomplished cast (Metwally's character is weak) and lots of cosmopolitan conversation, is nonetheless enervating and unfocused.