Review of Youth Without Youth (2007) by Kyle K — 11 Jun 2008

Dammit, this movie had a responsibility to Coppola to be good.

I know what Coppola was shooting for. It was an abstract concept about aging. But the movie was too abstract and the film was just too aimless to really say much about anything. Every story gets t obe picked up and then it is dropped. Once you get involved with a character, the story takes a u-turn and ignores the main idea that it oh-so-gloriously started with.

The big perk of this movie, however, is that it is visually goregous. I really wish I saw this in the theatre. Coppola really takes a cue from Aronovsky. I wouldn't be that disappointed (outside of the runtime) to see this as a double-feature with The Fountain. It's a science fiction story without the burdens of the science fiction nerdiness. Rather, the science fiction is rather a point of amazement that characters just deal with in their normal lives and that's what I really like.

I don't really get the images of the flowers. The use of the rose is a powerful image and is extremely effective...

...if I knew what it meant. There's the jungian association with the cycle of life and the association with passion. If it is the cycle of life, the way the metaphor was used was extremely cryptic and somewhat forced. I'm meeting Coppola more than halfway on that answer, but I'll except it. The passion bit would be lost on me completely.

The study of language plays as one of the few central themes of this movie, but I couldn't tell you why it is the central nature of this movie. I understand time and immortality, but there's other ways to explore this idea that would have supported the story better. Really, this movie was just an overall disappointment and I hope that this does not discourage Coppola. Similarly, I hope he doesn't pull a Lucas (American Zoetrope) and delude himeself that everyone else is crazy and keep making movies like this.