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.
Review of Youth Without Youth
