Youth (124min)
Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
Directed by Paolo Sorrentino
Released: December, 2015
Early in this film, a remark from one of its characters laments the fact that he has become known as an actor mostly for playing the role of a robot in one particular film. This remark turns out to be a reflection of the very nature of the film, Youth. Throughout much of its 2 hours, the film feels like it could have been made by a robot. The story line moves along in fits and starts, and the characters often speak their lines with an isolated demeanor rather than truly engaging with each other. Approached in the right way, however, the film can still be a pleasure to watch.
Youth is, in part, about two older artists at a vacation retreat in the Alps. Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel) is an older film director aspiring to make his outgoing masterpiece—in his words, “a testament” film, titled Life’s Last Days. Accompanying him at the retreat is a team of younger script writers working with him to find the right ending to the film. His longtime friend, Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine), a music composer, is also at the retreat. Fred recognizes and accepts that his life’s work is finished, and he seems content to just “be.” Accompanying him is his daughter, Lena (Rachel Weisz), who also seems to serve as his part time manager, fielding ongoing requests related to his long musical career. She regards her father’s contentment as “apathetic.” Fred also has a wife whom he apparently has not seen, according to his disgruntled daughter, for several years. (Toward the end of the film we accompany him as he visits her in a care facility where she lives in a catatonic state.)
There is so much rich material here to explore, but the film never gets around to doing this in a deep and cohesive manner. What we are offered instead is a series of scenes, often stunning or startling in their own right, but with little relation to the stories of the main characters. These visuals are often tangential intrusions that upstage the characters and interrupt the storyline. Allow me to demonstrate. Miss Universe slowly waded into the clear pool of water with her inflated breasts in full view for the older men to observe. This distracting sentence, although not totally unrelated to the gist of this film review, is erratic and startling in its lack of context. This is how most of Youth proceeds.
There are two ongoing narrative plots in Youth, one for each of the two older main characters. The film tries to keep both of these story lines spinning while unpredictably cutting away to various isolated scenes and a series of extraneous characters who are also at the vacation retreat hotel—characters as diverse as Miss Universe, and a startlingly obese retired soccer star who moves around with portable oxygen in tow. Although the unsuspecting viewer is trying to connect these diverse characters and visuals to some sense of the film’s development, the two main characters in the film continue to reappear with another bit of their own story. The result of this intercutting between real characters with genuine stories that are in partial development, and the caricatures that seed the film at unpredictable times, can produce a sense of filmic vertigo for the viewer.
Still, this might have all worked if the demeanor of the two main characters were more engaging. Instead, there is a disturbing sense of disengagement on the part of all the characters in this film. They mostly speak to, and hear, each other with detachment. Perhaps this is the intention of the director, so as to imbue the entire film with a sense of shallowness and nihilism. One of Mick’s closing lines reinforces this sense when he says to his younger cohorts: “What does it matter. Animals, plants, humans—we are all just extras.” Even Mick’s final act of suicidally jumping off the hotel balcony in full view of Fred gets a disengaged look of passive resignation on Fred’s face. This impassivity on the part of the characters makes it difficult to care about them or to be engaged in their narratives.
All of this is not to say that the film cannot be enjoyed. But to do so, you will need to let go of the expectations of a traditional narrative plot and simply sit back and enjoy the parade of often unrelated scenes and minor characters as they are presented to you in their rich colors and compositions. For me, it took a second viewing of the film to come to that place of detached but pleasurable viewing. But once you have come to terms with the film’s erratic style, you can regain your viewing balance and sit back and enjoy the several scenic diversions—like Fred sitting in the middle of an alpine meadow conducting the surrounding sounds—including the bells around the necks of the Swiss cows and the birds in the trees.
I should note here that Youth has little of importance to say about the experiences or meanings of aging. It often falls back on weak and narrow assumptions about the experiences of growing older (for example, it gives both older male characters a preoccupation with prostate-impeded peeing).
In the end, the film does actually manage to resolve the haltingly told narratives of both of its main characters. In fact, one of the most moving scenes in the entire film is played out at its end when Fred, contrary to expectation, leads an orchestra and singer in the performance of one of his better known compositions. This scene, along with much of the music used throughout the film, is reason enough to see Youth. And do stay through the long closing credits in order to enjoy the music of composer David Lang’s Just (After Song of Songs).
So, go ahead. See this film as a unique and pleasurable viewing experience. Just don’t expect it so say anything profound about growing older, despite its title and older characters.
Author notes
Decision Editor: Helen Q. Kivnick, PhD
