“Youth Without Youth” — A Movie Pulse Review

Genre: Drama, Romance, Thriller and Adaptation
Running Time: 2 hrs. 4 min.
Release Date: December 14th, 2007 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for some sexuality, nudity and a brief disturbing image.
Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Marcel Iures, Zoltan Butuc

After a 10 year hiatus from directing, Francis Ford Coppola returns with his new film Youth Without Youth. Based on a novella by Romanian philosopher Mircea Eliade, Coppola admitted that this film is not intended for general audience appeal, and is a very personal project that was ultimately brought to fruition for his own satisfaction. Sadly, that is undeniably apparent, as Youth Without Youth struggles to find its place amongst genres, is continually bogged down by monotonous dialogue, and is overwrought by nonsensical visuals and a convoluted storyline.

Dominic Matei (Tim Roth) is disenchanted by his inability to finish his life’s work, which is to research the origins of language. As thoughts of suicide cross the 70 year old man’s mind, he is struck by lightning. He wakes up to discover that over the course of 10 weeks in the hospital he has miraculously made a full recovery, and has been rejuvenated with the body of a 35-year-old (and a fresh set of teeth). He also ascertains that he has an extremely advanced brain that can store limitless amounts of information and that he can gain the knowledge of books by simply passing his hand over them. It is 1941 and he realizes that he’s become a valuable scientific specimen and must flee the Gestapo which is in search of him for research by Dr. Rudolph, one of Hitler’s top scientists. He learns to forge documents and lay low, and through the course of the next couple of decades, he rediscovers his true love Laura (Alexandra Maria Lara), the woman he loved and lost, who has apparently undergone a similar phenomenon.

If that sounds unnecessarily complex or genre transcending, it’s because it is. So circuitous in fact, that the story often fluctuates between illogical proportions and absolute nonsense. Dominic makes a reference at the end of the film about a king who dreams of being a butterfly who dreams of being a king. It probably has some sort of meaning to this horribly incoherent mess, which on the most lucid of scales is essentially about the inability to conquer time. Symbolism with three roses frequents the film, as does a doppelganger for Dominic, much like Jekyll and Hyde (except that he is visible most often only in mirrors and they both exist at the same time). Neither makes much sense, although Dominic’s alternate personalities arise from the lightning strike phenomenon. Attempting to touch upon the reasons behind Dominic and Laura’s conditions, scientific jargon such as “transmigration of the soul” and “mental psychosis” are offered, although it’s unlikely that the audience actually cares at that point.

Youth Without Youth has several interesting visuals, including subtle swastikas that grace notebooks and garter belts to alert the suspicious Dominic and to notify the audience of the time period. Upside down camera angles as well as sideways and slanted shots look unique, although they really serve no purpose. The cinematography flounders under the heavy amount of narration and convoluted dialogue that gums up the flow and pacing of the film. The lack of a specific genre hurts too, as there are clearly science-fiction aspects at work, and yet the setting is during World War II, and the look is of noir and drama. Perhaps the least science-fiction of all science-fiction films, Youth Without Youth also includes moments of schizophrenia and hallucinations to add to the disorder.

The film can’t seem to figure out what it wants to be, so resultantly the audience won’t be able to figure out what exactly is supposed to be going on. If it is indeed a work done solely to please its creator, then the studio and Coppola should anticipate the negative reviews that criticize its lack of focus, purpose and meaning - especially to those of us who haven’t been sipping wine nonstop for the last 10 years.

- Mike Massie
SCORE = 2/10
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