The City of Your Final Destination 2009

A.O. Scott, At the Movies: It's a fine cast, but this is an example for me of actors being really pulled down by the material. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Partly because the rarefied aesthetic climes conjured by the film barely exist anymore, its story feels as quaint as the once-vital Merchant Ivory ethos of hothouse nostalgia -- with its antique-shop sensibility and Anglo-European snob appeal -- does. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Ivory seems lost; it's as if he needs decades of distance and a canonized voice to bring out his best work. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Like all Merchant/Ivory films, The City of Your Final Destination quietly shimmers. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: It's like Paul McCartney's songs after the split with John Lennon - there's some good stuff, but nothing classic. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: It's a frustratingly oblique film where few events connect, and fewer moments matter. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: What was intended as a tart elegy for a vanished way of life becomes a valedictory to a certain kind of filmmaking: beautifully appointed, intelligently played, and civilized into inertia. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: One can dislike half of what Merchant Ivory has done and yet, in principle, still support the cause. Cutting-edge isn't all. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Slow, dull and wielding absolutely no emotional impact despite a fine cast. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The City of Your Final Destination is lovely to look at -- and languid to the point of stultifying torpor, as interesting characters make speeches to one another about life, love, and literature. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Destined to be little more than a footnote in the anthology of extraordinary films to come out of the long creative collaboration between producer Merchant, director James Ivory and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: This long and overly genteel adaptation of Peter Cameron's 2002 novel never quite comes to a boil. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: This movie is a triumph. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: A movie that feels as if it should have been a masterpiece. As it is, it's flawed, uneven work but deserves careful viewing. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: There's no dramatic mainspring to the story, but the civilized dialogue is refreshing, the South American locations are lovely and Jorge Drexler's score is rapturously romantic. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: With a wimpy protagonist and a reticent director driving the story, The City of Your Final Destination doesn't go far enough. Read more

Boyd van Hoeij, Variety: Languid, multi-accented adaptation of the contempo novel by Peter Cameron suffers from an unfocused screenplay and direction. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: James Ivory and cast make every scene flutter with feeling in this adaptation of Peter Cameron's 2002 novel, written for the screen by Ivory's collaborator-of-50-years, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Read more