Youth review: A film with a great heart, with three superb performances by Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel and Rachel Weisz pumping through it.
Youth review
Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel lead the cast in this unusual comedy/ drama from Italian director Paulo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty, This Must Be The Place).
The story revolves around two friends, Mick (Keitel) a Hollywood movie director and writer, and Fred (Caine), an award-winning composer, who are on holiday in the Alps at a very luxurious hotel. We meet Fred at afternoon tea in the grounds of said hotel where he is meeting with a royal officer, and seemingly being offered a knighthood and the chance to perform his greatest work in front of the Queen and Prince Phillip, an opportunity that he immediately declines due to ‘personal reasons.’ Mick, on the other hand, is in the final stages of writing the screenplay for his next, and indeed final film with a group of young writers. The two friends, who have known each other for more than sixty years, spend the rest of the movie reflecting on their past and observing the lives of their children, Lena (Rachel Weisz), who has just broken up with husband Julian (Ed Stoppard), who just so happens to be Mick’s son. Amongst the other hotel guests are Paul Dano‘s A-list actor, who is researching for a new, deep role and trying to escape his image as a big-screen robot character. Then there’s Paloma Faith, triumphantly playing herself as the ‘other woman’ involved in the break-up of the marriage of Lena and Julian, and quite randomly, Diego Maradonna, again playing himself.
Youth review
Sorrentino’s film lands at the BFI London Festival in the same week as the brilliant The Lobster, a film which I thought that I could never possibly compare any other movie to, but if I were to, then I’m sure that Youth would be it. Filled with the random, quirky very dark humour clearly on disolay in The Lobster, Youth lacks a lot of the charm of that movie, but is a very intelligent film with the added similarity that it is also largely based in a hotel, though the only animals on display here are the strange and silent older couple who Keitel and Caine observe over dinner, only later to see them ‘going at it like rabbits’ in the nearby woods.
The film essentially revolves around the relationship between Keitel and Caine, who both deliver top-notch performances in their respective roles. Caine is the clear stand-out; his subdued, slight turn as the retired composer is up there with the best in his very-long, legendary career, a clear master at work who can still manage to raise more than a few laughs, while at the same time warm your heart with his raw, hugely likeable appearance as Fred.
Youth review
A clear stand-out away from two leads is Rachel Weisz, another connection with The Lobster who makes it a flooring one-two with her excellent turn as Lena. The scene in which defines her amazing performance is one in which she pours out pure emotion whilst sharing a mud bath with her father – one in which the camera stays with her for what seems like three to four minutes, without cutting or moving, and her delivering a multi-page monologue. She is astounding. Also look out for an exceptional extended cameo from Jane Fonda as fading Hollywood starlet Brenda Morel, which is also a really solid turn.
Youth is sure to divide the audience, a film that suffers from quite a few pacing issues, is a touch overlong, and perhaps a bit too sentimental. Still, with the amount of acting talent on display here, Diego Maradonna surprisingly included, as well as the beautiful photography of the Alps, this is well worth your time.
Youth review by Paul Heath, October 2015.
Youth plays at the 2015 BFI London Film Festival. It will be released on 29th January, 2016 in the UK, and in the US on the 4th December, 2015.
