Youth

YOUTH

Director : Paolo Sorrentino
Year : 2016
Genre : Drama
Rating : ***

There is a particularly memorable line of dialogue heard during the opening few minutes of Paolo Sorrentino's Swiss-set drama 'Youth' in which the retired orchestra conductor Fred (Michael Caine), in conversation with his best friend Mick (Harvey Keitel), refers to the fractured upbringing of his now estranged daughter as "a tremendous effort with modest results" - a sentiment that also, ironically, describes the film itself.

On the one hand, it is consistently gorgeous to watch, with stunning vistas and luscious locations serving as the perfect backdrop for Sorrentino's often thought-provoking material. But, much like a majority of his previous work, the Academy Award winning director frequently confuses avant-garde surrealism with aeuteuristic pretentiousness - supplementing basic narrative and character development with strange, non-linear imagery and numerous nonsensical montages.

Michael Caine is superb in his central role as Fred, the shy and introverted former composor whose refusal to return to the art of music and conduct his most famous piece at a royal celebration leads him down a rocky path of nostalgic longing and peaceful psychological reconciliation. The usually gruff Harvey Keitel is also wonderful as Mick, an old yet eternally young filmmaker whose has come with Fred to the idyllic countryside of Switzerland to formulate what could be his magnum opus, the ominously titled 'Life's Last Day'. 

A fine supporting cast featuring the likes of Paul Dano, Jane Fonda and a scene-stealing Rachel Weisz round up the rollcall of Sorrentino's puppets in this at times brilliant meditation of life, death and regret and at times it truly is brilliant - an ethereal scene in which Michael Caine's Fred sits on a tree stump and plaintively conducts the various sounds of the mid-morning countryside is an especially emotional and visual treat.

However, despite some great performances, beautiful cinematography and some particularly lyrical moments of genuine pathos and truth, 'Youth' ultimately falls into the same ostententious pitfalls that, for me, have damaged much of Sorrentino's previous work. There are far too many moments of illogical weirdness and overly tasteless imagery for my liking and while I'm sure that Sorrentino thinks that the sight of Caine and Keitel lecherously ogling a naked Miss Universe in a swimming pool is somehow charming, it certainly comes across as more creepy than anything else. In the end, 'Youth' engages in a constant battle with profundity and the perfunctory and sadly, it's a battle that the film ultimately loses.