The acting in this movie is really good.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is an intriguing pleasant movie which takes you through several stages of suspension of disbelief and then leaves you with "in the end it was all a dream?"However, I can guess that the book format would fit more with the philosophical aspects of it. You can see that a lot of big philosophical questions are approached by the mechanics of doubling your personality through multiple consciousnesses, then mixed with Orientalism and soul transfers... even some telekinesis... in short, it's a bit of a mess. Still pleasant to watch, but you get the feeling that there would be a deeper message or at least more development into the various teams, but instead we have more like a short safari through various aspects of these beliefs.The love story part of it is also not particularly interesting - it offers, for no reason, a duality between work and love. The love is the sort that is automatic and axiomatic - the work is seen as very interesting but we only know it's about the origin of languages and, purportedly, their evolution into something post modern languages. Guessing that since it doesn't really exist (if it ever will) limits recounting anything about the future, but the past analysis is also not particularly developed.So, pleasant watch, but nothing to get particularly excited or introspective.

Interesting, with mountains of potential, but ultimately disappointing. The movie was set up to be something very profound, but then drifted and failed to make a point. Still has enough coherent good ideas to be half-decent, but things could have been a whole lot better. The plot is where this lives and dies, and it is pretty convoluted. Kind of reminds me of Benjamin Button meets Inception, if directed by David Lynch (not that it is, it is just weird enough to be a David Lynch movie). The complexity turns out to be its downfall, as you get the feeling the writer had nowhere to go eventually. The script is too clever for its own good.Director Francis Ford Coppola must bear much of the blame, as he wrote the screenplay (adapted from Mircea Eliade's book), as well as directed the movie. Direction is good, but is hampered by the plot.Tim Roth puts in a solid performance in the lead role. Lesser-known Alexandra Maria Lara is good, and very beautiful, as the love interest.

RELEASED IN 2007, "Youth Without Youth" was Francis Ford Coppola's return to filmmaking after a ten-year absence. The story revolves around a 70 year-old man (Tim Roth) in Romania at the outset of WWII who is struck by lightning and miraculously regains his youth, looking like a 40 year-old man. He acquires amazing powers as well, like psycho-kinesis and the ability to "read" a book by "scanning" it with his mind. The Nazi's catch wind of his amazing evolution and want to study him to contribute to the "master race" (or whatever). The second half of the film takes place after the war years when the man finds a woman who looks like a young version of his deceased love (Alexandra Maria Lara). Incredibly, she too is struck by lightning with differing results and it aids in his research on the origins of languages.The plot brings to mind two films from the mid-90s that also address people with fascinating powers: "Powder" and "Phenomenon." The latter was decent whereas the former shot for greatness and in some ways attained it. "Youth Without Youth" is completely different in tone, mostly due to the WWII time-frame, but also because it's less of a wannabe blockbuster and more artsy and nigh unfathomable.It has been said that "Youth Without Youth" was an intensely personal project for Coppola. The topic, based on the novel by Mircea Eliade, resonated with him and he was driven to convey it on film. You get the impression that Coppola had discovered the answer to the mysteries of life and wanted to share it with the world.Think about it: Coppola is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time and he had a full decade to conceive, prepare, make and release a film. He could've churned out blockbuster drivel like the "Transformers" movies (not that there's anything wrong with that, lol), but as a true artist he's beyond caring about creating popular popcorn fare and the "success" thereof. It brings to mind Willard's observations about Col. Kurtz (Brando) in Coppola's renowned "Apocalypse Now" (1979): "He could've gone for general, but he went for himself instead." Francis could've gone for mindless and lucrative entertainment, but he had something more important in mind.So "Youth Without Youth" is a work of art, and certainly interesting and entertaining in some ways, but it requires willingness and effort to handle the 124 minutes runtime. It is a dense film, loaded with depth; it may even hold the secrets to life itself! Beyond that, it features some beautiful cinematography, music and women.Speaking of the women, I found it curious that women are shown to be universally attracted to Dominic, the main character played by Roth. After all, Roth is short and hardly a George Clooney. But then I reflected on it and accepted it. Why? Because women have a sort of sixth sense, typically called "women's intuition," where they see or sense things beyond the physical. In other words, Dominic had highly evolved and was, in essence, a superior human being. He may not have been an Adonis, but women instinctively picked up on his evolutionary superiority and drew to him like a magnet.Another plus are the locations, shot in Romania and Bulgaria with establishing shots of the Himalayas and India.Needless to say, this is a difficult film to rate. If you're in the mood for conventional cinematic entertainment "Youth Without Youth" won't fill the bill even though there are several entertaining elements (the aforementioned cinematography, music, women and locations); but if you're looking for cinematic art and weighty mind food it's an "A." As such, my balanced rating is...GRADE: B-

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.