The City of Your Final Destination
Screen Media Films | Release Date: April 16, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
12
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
ObserverRex Reed
Every complex member of the writer’s legacy has an agenda, with varying gains and losses, and the power of the film rests in the way it captures so many tangled lives as they cross and intersect at curious angles. The camera is literal, so the film sometimes fails to escape its roots of literary inspiration. This did not bother me. How many times do you get the chance to curl up with a good movie? Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad Derakhshani
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 full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah Young
Its appeal naturally will be to book-reading audiences who appreciate films with well-written dialogue, a tony cast, lush visuals and the triumph of civilized values. Read full review
70
Boxoffice MagazinePete Hammond
Performances are generally first-rate with Hopkins exhibiting an ease and laid-back approach that serves Adam perfectly. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Besides Ms. Linney’s excellent performance and Mr. Hopkins’s good one, the best things about the movie are its sensuous cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe (“Talk to Her,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”) and a gorgeous soundtrack. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
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 full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
With its seductive images and smart dialogue, The City of Your Final Destination has the setting and circumstances for a ripe family drama or a literary love story, yet it never awakens from its siesta. Read full review
60
Village VoiceNick Pinkerton
Best is Linney, conquering scenes as the acrid and touching Caroline, her regal bitterness a shield against nostalgia, dressed Park Avenue posh to drink alone. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
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 full review
58
Portland OregonianStan Hall
All that talent behind and in front of the camera is mostly wasted due to a rare substandard screenplay. Read full review
55
NPRElla Taylor
The City of Your Final Destination does eventually prove intelligent enough about how we all become prisoners of dependency and obsession. Yet for a movie that argues for free agency and following your bliss rather than your career, it's awfully torpid. Read full review
50
VarietyBoyd Van Hoeij
Languid, multi-accented adaptation of the contempo novel by Peter Cameron suffers from an unfocused screenplay and direction. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
It’s a frustratingly oblique film where few events connect, and fewer moments matter. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
This long and overly genteel adaptation of Peter Cameron's 2002 novel never quite comes to a boil. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
Filled with unrealized possibilities and fraught with flaws, Final Destination seems 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 full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy Biancolli
From the start, we can see where this is headed: a big fat power struggle, with Omar at the eye of the storm. But the storm is more of a drizzle than an apocalyptic downpour, just one snippy conversation after another in languorous settings. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid Fear
So it’s no surprise that, even with longtime screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala watching his back, the director never finds his groove with Peter Cameron’s tale. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Ivory appears most concerned about creating a mood, and in this regard he's successful. But Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's surprisingly bland screenplay, based on Peter Cameron's novel, feels half-finished Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
When you get to the end of The City of Your Final Destination, you may discover that there is no there there. Read full review
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