Home > Movies > Movie Review > Youth Without Youth

Youth Without Youth

Francis Ford Coppola's deranged new movie is a trip to nowhere

By Geoff Berkshire

December 14, 2007

Critic's Rating:

• Email
• Print View
• Share
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Furl
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • Spurl
  • Yahoo
• Add To Favorites
• Add to playlist

OK, let’s give this a shot… When elderly linguistics professor Dominic Matei (Tim Roth) is struck by lightning in Romania in 1938 he suddenly reverts to a younger age with the benefit of a greatly increased intellect. Aided by a mysterious double who often speaks to him through mirrors, Dominic evades the interests of Nazi researchers and attempts to complete his exploration into the origin of language.

He also meets Veronica (Alexandra Maria Lara), who looks just like his long lost love Laura but occasionally appears possessed by the spirit of “Rupini,” a 7th-century woman who speaks fluent Sanskrit. Plus, some of the movie's images are projected upside down, and at one point Dominic announces he will begin “speaking in a language that can only be deciphered by a perfected computer in the year 2010.” And no, this isn't a comedy.

Big question: Can legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola (the man behind “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather” series) finally recapture his old magic, ten years after he last had a directing credit on a feature film?

Skip it: Some are sure to see brilliance in this boldly experimental narrative, but most audiences will be so bored and confused they’ll want to leave halfway through. Coppola never achieves the irresistible pull that characterizes the best of David Lynch’s dreamlike visions, and whenever the film veers closer to traditional narrative it’s further undone by flat performances from the supporting actors and a lack of chemistry in the central romance.

Catch it: If you’re a Matt Damon completist. The movie star (who had one of his first lead roles in Coppola’s last film, “The Rainmaker”) has a distracting cameo here that’s as baffling as everything else on screen.

Bottom line: Unless you’re interested solely in strikingly beautiful photography there’s nothing very satisfying about “Youth Without Youth.”

Bonus: When Dominic tells Veronica, “You’ve been in the sun too long,” it’s hard not to wonder if the same holds true for Coppola when he conceived the movie.