Following up The Great Beauty, writer/director Paolo Sorrentino gives up Fellini for something pretty different. (Michael Caine looks like a Tony Servillo stand-in, though.) I, for the life of me, cannot decide if it is a masterpiece or a disaster-piece.
Consider the title, Youth. In a film dominated by the elderly, Youth somehow finds a style that works for it. It's wise, funny, and sometimes mournful. It's the movie's greatest strength.
Michael Caine is dazzling as Fred Ballinger, a retired orchestra composer and conductor spending a holiday at a Swiss spa. With him is Harvey Keitel as legendary film writer/director Mick Boyle, working on his "testament" after a string of flops.
'Youth' is preoccupied in artistic interests. There are dozens of conversations about Ballinger's iconic 'Simple Songs', the various endings of Boyle's testament, and even a robot movie that haunts fellow spa resident Jimmy Tree (Paul Dano). It's often interesting, yes, but it does get tiresome too.
And then there are seemingly insignificant conversations too. Ballinger and Boyle ask each other how much the other has pissed that day, or if the silent couple in the dining hall will ever talk. I say seemingly insignificant because they most certainly feel insignificant, but they occur so often in the movie's first half that there must be some significance of some sort. I'll let it simmer.
For two whole hours, Youth is never not beautiful. The environment is calm, and so too is the movie. It's just that the movie isn't really about anything. Artists struggle, but why should I care? Sorrentino never answers the question.
Also in the film are Rachel Weisz and Jane Fonda, indispensable female figures to Ballinger and Boyle. Weisz takes the backseat for a lot of the movie, but she does get a very meaty monologue in the beginning. Fonda chews scenery, but I'm not entirely sure it works. It certainly is a good change-of-pace after an hour of talking about the same things. Mark Kozolek of Sun Kil Moon does the music, which is both awesome and very generic indie sounding.
7.5/10
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