19 out of 19 people found the following review helpful:

Better than you might think

Mark from Brighton, 21st May, 2008

Ignore some of the bad reviews here, this is actually a very beautiful film. If you're looking for something along the lines of the Godfather or Apocalypse Now or some other bit of action, then of course, this ain't the film you want to see with a couple of beers. However, it's not confusing or messy in the slightest - it just messes around with ideas of dreams and hopes and possibilities and what-could-have-beens and what-might-be. It feels like a familiar and well-loved discourse into the meanings of death after unfulfilled lives, of knowledge versus love and hope - Faust for lovers! And without giving too much away, it's a very hopeful film. It surprised me actually - I wouldn't have thought of watching it but for the recommendation of a friend. I'm still digesting it, but so far I feel very uplifted - not something I get often from films.

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11 out of 12 people found the following review helpful:

A complete mess

A Customer from Sheffield, 1st May, 2008

This film was just a complete mess. It was like short stories had been shunted together - there was no narrative or continuity. Poorly written and poorly directed. Coppola has shown that, like Scorsese has in making Gangs of New York and in his remake of Infernal Affairs, that retirement is now overdue.

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7 out of 9 people found the following review helpful:

Life is too short for youth without youth

drright from , 23rd April, 2008

It is a rare occurrence for me not to watch a film to the end—probably only about 3 in the last three years. I managed to watch an hour of Youth without Youth but then gave up because it was soooooo bad. I thought it might be me on a bad night because I generally enjoy Coppola films. So to see if this was the case, I went to hear what Mark Kermode had to say about this film; his view was very similar to mine. I would urge you to listen to Mark’s review—it almost becomes an official Mark Kermode rant at how dreadful the film is!

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6 out of 6 people found the following review helpful:

disappointing

scorpion from , 12th May, 2008

NOT THE BEST FILM OUT DISAPPOINTING NOT 4 ME

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1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Very good!

Ell1981 from from London, 18th November, 2009

Surprisingly this film was slated when it came out. I thought it was an excellent rendition of a very strange story with the typical Coppola trademark landscape and a good performance from an under used Tim Roth. Watch it!

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Fantastic, thought-provoking - not one for everybody!!!

Bald1 from , 7th October, 2009

A great film that explores the philosophy of language and time. A Romanian professor -Dominic Matei- approaching his death bed is struck by lightening. It's a miracle, he is rejuvenated. Has he been given a second chance to complete his life's works on the origin language? Is he alone in his condition? And why on earth did this never get a UK cinema release...!?

Nietzsche said 'That which does not overcome me makes me stronger.' If this film does not overcome you it will make you stronger. It is ultimately a love story that transcends time, language and space. The Captivating cinematography by Mihai Malaimare Jr and an outstanding performance by Tim Roth keep the plot moving along in this film that may asks more thought provoking questions than it answers.

(However, I'm afraid that the pacing of the film might seem slow to fans of Marvel Comics and those with an MTV generation attention span - not enough explosions).

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Disappointed

AliC from , 17th August, 2009

It may be that this film has some profound truth that passed me by because I stopped watching it half way through. It is very rare for me to give up on a film but I found it so tedious to watch that I decided I must have something better I could do with my time - like housework or paying bills or even unblocking a drain

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*** May contain spoilers ***

splendid

lesliejung from , 7th August, 2009

Tim Roth is wonderful, and his presence always influences me a lot about any
film he is in - but this is a film you can love, and return to many
times perhaps without worrying about what it 'means' although, as i will set out below, there is a meaning

i think if you are a 'pseudo' film commentator, you might think, 'oh gee, Coppola has
blown it' - but if you are just a genuine film goer, who likes a good melodrama (why not?) then this is for you - i was persuaded by herregressing into earlier languages - and when she gets older and weeps looking in the mirror, i thought, well, would the Roth character go off her? but he does not. he suffers with her. so wehave a depiction of real love, and her own sadness growing older - along with that lingering idea (that i would dispute, perhaps because i am aging,) that getting older is a bad thing - but it is something that will happen to us all, and we should try to do it well.

further it is clearly influenced by Carl Jung's psychology - Eliade wrote with Jung even if they did not entirely agree on things - the double, parts of the personality that exist simulatneoulsy - both evil and good - the 'shadow' in a personality; the ubiquity and universality of the common human past in each of us individually - access to the distant past too in language (phlology) - the urge to find the origin - these are all Jungian themes a la Star Wars themes too, in their way.

multiple personalities and skills that transcend everyday human abilities - care by a doctor and mutual learning; refusal of reductionist aims of rationlist/positivist Nazi science, here, i.e. the aims of the doctor seeking to electrify his subjects to achieve what our man has achieved otherwise by natural/elemental means. it is finally explicable in those terms - the eternal return of event in time - the same event happens but with new meaning - a theme of Eliade's, Jung's and Nietzche after all - the explicable is basically irrational and if we don't recognise the part of the inexplicable in 'reality' then we do not know 'reality'.

as you can see, for me, an intriguing and haunting film to see many times

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