Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics				YOUTH  WITHOUT  HTUOY
What do you do with time?  If you were given the chance to start over, what would you change about your life?  Would you marry someone else?  Choose a different career?  Change your entire identity?  Complete things you left undone?  Better yet, if you were a legendary Hollywood director, would you choose art films over mainstream movies?   But, at what cost?  After nearly a decade out of the spotlight, Francis Ford Coppola returns to the big screen with his latest film, Youth Without Youth, wherein a bolt of lightning miraculously restores an elderly professor’s youth.  The film, based on the novella of the same name by Romanian author Mircea Eliade, is a personal one for the established director, who desires to return to his youthful days of creative filmmaking.  However, Youth is not Coppola’s return to the glory days of directing studio-controlled blockbusters like Apocalypse Now or The Godfather.  Youth is Coppola’s return to the realm of avant-garde, which may not sit too well with some audiences because Youth is an oneiric film that refuses to clearly establish the character’s dreams from reality.
The story begins on Easter Sunday 1938, when 70 year-old linguistics professor Dominic Matei (Tim Roth), distraught over his lost love Laura (Alexandra Maria Lara), sets out to commit suicide.  But, before he can swallow his lethal dose of strychnine, lightning strikes Dominic’s umbrella, and the elderly professor awakens as a 30 year-old man from what should have been a lethal jolt of electricity.		Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Dominic quickly learns that his youth isn’t the only thing restored.  The fateful lightning strike also endows the linguist with the superhuman talents of telekinesis and an ability to absorb entire contents of books instantaneously.  Yet, the good must be accompanied by the bad, which means there’s also a darker element that emerges – Dominic’s psychological “double” that only he can see and hear.    Naturally, Dominic’s unique medical condition comes to the attention of both the Nazis and the CIA, prompting his doctor, Professor Stanciulescu (Bruno Ganz), to help Dominic escape to neutral Switzerland and continue working on his magnum opus of identifying the origins of language.  In Switzerland, Dominic finds himself reunited with Laura (via reincarnation as Veronica), who is struck by her own cataclysmic bolt of lightning.  Immediately, Veronica starts experiencing regressive episodes thru past lives in which she speaks ancient languages.  Because each episode is more primitive than the last, Dominic eagerly records them for his studies.  When Veronica’s transmigrations start robbing her of her youth, Dominic realizes the true paradox of the situation; and, ultimately finds himself faced with the same philosophical dilemma he previously faced with Laura:  choosing between knowledge and love.
Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics			On the surface, Youth Without Youth addresses familiar Coppola themes of age, time, and youth seen in Jack or Peggy Sue Got Married.  However, if you dig a little bit deeper into the subtext of the film, you’ll find elusive elements of philosophy, espionage, and metaphysical transcendence intricately woven into the folds of this time-bending love story.
It’s almost as if Youth Without Youth is a paradox of itself.  On one hand, film school brats will appreciate the photogénie of Youth’s impressionistic visual design, and intellectuals will be drawn to the deep philosophical issues and ancient languages the film has to offer.  On the other hand, it is these same avant-garde aspects of Youth’s ambiguous subjectivity that will disappoint the general masses.     Overall, Youth is a thought provoking story about the significance of time and how we choose to spend it.  Audiences expecting a standard dose of Hollywood spoon-feeding won’t find it in Coppola’s latest film.  Instead, they’ll encounter a confusing story, hokey dialogue, and no action sequences.  But, that’s what the very essence of the film is about – consciousness and extending our sense of reality beyond the normal boundaries of perception.  If you’re looking for some mindless entertainment to pass the time, Youth isn’t the film for you.  But, if you happen to be one of those rare people who enjoys flexing their mind every now and then, Youth Without Youth is definitely worth the trip to the theatre.  Coppola knows his film won’t appeal to everyone, and he’s OK with that.  It’s a price the master is willing to pay in order to return to the type of youthful, independent filmmaking he loves.
Unlike many other critics who refer to Coppola’s latest work as “beautiful but empty,” the soulful intelligence and aesthetic beauty I found in Youth Without Youth left my head buzzing with intellectual euphoria long after it was over.  I can’t remember the last time a film had this type of effect on me, but I wish more of them did.    © Kelly Bartley 2007		Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Running Time:	2 hours 4 minutes
Release Date:	December 14, 2007 (limited)
Rating:	R (some sexuality, nudity, brief disturbing images)
Distributor:	Sony Pictures Classics