Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Walter Sloane Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

sandgrainday I'm quite upset that this film is rated so low and so few people are interested in the film. Youth Without Youth is a masterpiece. The story is thought-provoking, even though it doesn't really provide answers to the philosophical questions it raises.I guess that's why many people don't like this film—everything is so vague. It doesn't explain the scientific reasons behind those many weird things in it, because it's not Marvel Comics. It doesn't have a complete, detailed, linear story line, because it's not a telenovela. It's all about philosophy and religion. (The original writer Mircea Eliade was a philosopher and historian of religion.) Some people must have this deep fear that their life is meaningless—I know I do have this fear—your very existence is meaningless, you have lived in vain. Then what gives meaning to life? Dominic Matei's search for the origin of human language is more than an academic research, is a search for deeper understanding of humanity itself. From a religious point of view, because "in the beginning was the Word" and language was given to human (not created by human), it's also a search for metaphysical knowledge.Almost inevitably, Dominic fails; worse, he can never be with the love of his life. To some extent, his attempts and failures represent any person's attempts and failures.It's a good film that leads to some musings about life.

Rodrigo Amaro 10 years without directing a movie and then Francis Ford Coppola returns with "Youth Without Youth". But it was a disappointing return considering that his daughter Sofia directed the brilliant "Lost in Translation" and his other son Roman directed the nostalgic film "CQ" (run to watch this film NOW). I don't know what happened to the talented director of movies like "The Godfather" trilogy and "The Conversation" but I know this: he tried hard, made a few good things but in the end the result was overshadowed by a messy and confusing plot where the dramatic suspense was more interesting than the romance told in the second half of it.The amazing Tim Roth plays an 70 year-old linguistic that after being struck by a lightning starts all of sudden to get younger and he has the chance to do all the things he wanted to do as younger including finishing a book (we never know what is the so-called work of his life). But this linguistic happens to be in Europe during the 2nd World War and the Nazis want him after discovering what happened to him, and they want to know what more thing he can do. Roth is helped by a medical doctor (Bruno Ganz) to escape to another countries, disguised and not only that: he has some incredible powers such as speak and write in all possible languages and mind-controlling (that appears in a scene where he makes a Nazi scientist shoot himself), and he talks to himself divided into another person (remember John Lithgow in "Raising Cain"? No? The bad twin and the good twin. Here Roth has an good side but he's able to talk to his "bad" ? negative side). Until this part where he's running away from all kinds of danger the movie works very well. Then...There's a boring and endless romance between the main character and a young woman (Alexandra Maria Lara), he knew that woman earlier in his life and now she returned also hit by a lightning and speaking in some dead Indian language. The mystery is good except for the excessive use of philosophical thoughts about life, death, experiences and other things. The romance was unconvincing, I didn't feel empathy for the actors at this point, and by the time they're old again (for no reasons at all or I blinked and missed something) the movie was ruined. I haven't read Mircea Eliade's novel and I don't know what was good about it to make it transformed into a feature film but I know this: The story had great potential but if it were filmed by David Lynch. It is an very surrealistic story something that Coppola is not used to do. But Coppola didn't ruined the movie, perhaps just a few parts of his screenplay that didn't match well. As a director he made a great technical film, with good art direction and a beautiful cinematography; but the screenplay could've been more easy to follow, less difficult to put the parts together and explain a few things. When Tim Roth manages to control the actions of the Nazi scientist who wanted to kill him the movie (or the book) could point to other direction and make of the main character a hero instead of a egoistic character that only wants to write his book and learn more and more about things. Performances were okay here, Roth was good; Bruno Ganz even better; and Alexandra Maria Lara was unmemorable, can't sure quite why; and there's a good special appearance by Matt Damon. In the end the title "Youth Without Youth" reflected that despite getting young (Youth) and have a chance to make different things doesn't necessarily means to be a greater person and/or to have a uncomplicated life. This thirsty for knowledge only made the character a lot older on his inside (Without Youth). In simple words: a movie with a similar theme is better when someone builds a time machine. When a lightning strikes you probably are going to be too much reflexive on things and end up doing nothing. 5/10

zebaroni This is the first movie that made me feel I should do something to warn unsuspecting victims. So... uhm... there must be something good in it if... after all, it did prompt me to action, right? Well... No, it's boring. Really, really, really boring. And stupid. The dialogues are stilted, all the scenes are forced, the development of the 'plot' is choppy and naïve (e.g., nazi officer demands: "We must take this man, Hitler is highly interested in him", doctor replies: "Uhm... no, I am a doctor and I say so, dudes"; nazi officer: "Grrr! I'll come back with a German doctor!"(?) Next, he and the rest of the German soldiers reluctantly leave the room, almost as confused as the audience). Or: a girl has an accident, survives and speaks nonsense and -out of nowhere- 234 scholars show up and take her to India, instead of going with the old post-traumatic stress hypothesis, they go with the "why, of course she must be channeling the thoughts and feelings of a dead girl from India!" theory. It is worth noting that a bunch of characters that seemed important or relevant to the plot die and are never mentioned again, their tragic deaths (no matter how close they were to the main characters) do not have any visible impact on anyone whatsoever. Characters are pulled into the screen and then kicked out to never be seen or heard again. They are all mere plot devices, they have no past, no family, friends, prior engagements, a job... anything. They are empty vessels waiting to be sucked in by the plot and shoved out of the screen when they have become useless. This movie doesn't even portray the shadow of anything human. Hell, the characters were stiff even if we find out they were terminators the whole time! Languages! After all the main character is a linguist, the movie must be language-aware, right? Wrong! Dominic Matei will speak English even when speaking to other Rumanians, while Matei still speaks Italian to Italians and German to Germans, English remains his choice when he has an interior monologue or a chat with an old friend. Let's not even go to the concepts, ideas or conflicts developed in the movie: the strongest attempt at developing an idea is: "Are you saying the end justifies the means?". Youth or old age are not even faintly explored or described. The rest is Coppola trying really hard to make some point (WWII happened sometime ago, Love or work?, languages: yes or no?), whichever it may have been it's certainly not worth watching this movie. In other words: compared with this film, any 'buy-now' ad clip is a masterpiece. Go enjoy something else, it won't be nearly as dull and poorly thought as Youth without youth is. Cheers.

Argemaluco I was not very interested in watching Youth Without Youth, despite being director Francis Ford Coppola's first film in 10 years (if we do not consider his anonymous "contribution" to the atrocious Supernova).I liked various movies from this legendary filmmaker very much...not the ones he made as a mercenary director (like Jack or Peggy Sue Got Married), but the most personal ones (like Rumble Fish or Tucker: The Man and His Dream), where he was obviously interested in the material.But the negative commentaries Youth Without Youth received made me not to be very interested in watching it, because I did not want to find another great director reduced to a mere shadow of his previous energy (like it happened to me with Oliver Stone and Alexander, Steven Spielberg and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, John Carpenter and Ghosts of Mars, and a very long etcetera).However, Youth Without Youth was released in my country, and since I had some free time and due to a schedule coincidence, I decided to watch it.Unfortunately, all the negative commentaries were right: Youth Without Youth is a confusing, hollow and terribly boring mess, and I think this is the lowest point in Coppola's career so far.The story of this movie is complicated, but not on the interesting way which challenges us to unravel the mysteries of the narrative (like it would may happen on a film directed by Jim Jarmusch), or complicated in the sense of director David Lynch's delicious style, which invites us to draw conclusions and enjoy a dream-like experience.Youth Without Youth is complicated on a horribly tedious way.Besides, this film is full of forced and arbitrary philosophical, linguistic and literary discussions.In summary, Youth Without Youth is an unbearable experience, and my recommendation is for you to stay away from it.I still cannot believe Coppola was the responsible of this mess.