Paolo Sorrentino has crafted a film with Youth that feels like something his lead character, played by Michael Caine, would have composed. It’s symphonic in its beauty and Youth is beautiful in not only how it was shot, but its language, messages and performances throughout.
Caine is Fred Ballinger. He is a legendary retired composer-conductor and we meet him at a luxurious resort-spa in Switzerland where he comes every year for a few weeks with his daughter (Rachel Weisz) and longtime best friend (Harvey Keitel), who is using this particular sojourn to put the finishes touches on a script and plans for his film’s director character’s latest opus. Also in attendance is a superstar actor (played by Paul Dano) who is trying to find the inside of his latest character, all while stripping away the layers of guilt he feels for being an artist known mostly for ironically playing a robot.
It all comes together in the most Wes Andersonian of mixes — that is still pure Sorrentino — at this chalet and Youth is top to bottom, one of the best and most moving experiences of the year.
One of the first things that resonates from this film upon reflection is how each of the stellar performers are given their pure moments to shine. There are monologues that actors should be using for auditions for decades into the future. Jane Fonda deserves a Best Supporting Actress nod (which we think she deserves) for her all-too short turn as a fading movie superstar who delivers a bit of verbal goods to Keitel’s director that kicks him in the emotional gut. Weisz lights into her father as the two “enjoy” a massage where she tells him the what’s what about her childhood and his lack of attention to her upbringing needs. It is electric. And Keitel and Caine each gets moments as well, with Dano having a career-moment onscreen with his as well.
One would think that Youth would be focused on people who are aging and their obsession with how to be/look younger. This is a health spa they are entrenched at after all. That’s not the cae at all. In fact, it is more about the fleetingness of the title subject and how our definition of it is different from person to person. Sorrentino also interjects many moments where he plays fast and loose with the definition of the word when it comes to how each of us sees ourselves when we look in the mirror and reflect. The classic old adage, “you’re only as old as you feel” gets turned on its head here.
You’re only as young as you feel is probably the better theme to focus on in Youth.
What else is unforgettable about the film is the extended cast from the former soccer star who is grossly overweight and needs an oxygen tank to breath to the masseuse who seems lost in her life, but yet may be the most grounded and present of everyone at the spa. Every inch of this film, from the actors, to the writing, to the cinematography and score by David Lang.
The crux of the story that drives the plot focuses on Caine’s composer/conductor and how Queen Elizabeth wishes to Knight him and that honor is contingent on the fact that he perform his Simple Songs piece with a full orchestra and an opera singer of the royal’s choosing. Something is keeping Ballinger from saying yes. Why… will break your heart in the most wonderful of ways. Speaking of Lang, when we finally hear Simple Songs, it occurred to us that penning it had to be the most challenging of endeavors for the composer. This is a never-before-heard song that is supposed to be one of the most well-known pieces of music in the last 100 years. When audiences are treated to it… yup, it’s mirrors the beauty (note for note) of the entire Youth experience.
Grade: A