YOUTH
Special Presentation D: Paulo Sorrentino. Italy/France/UK/Switzerland. 123 min. Sep 12, 5:45 pm Elgin Sep 13, 10:30 am Winter Garden Sep 18, 3 pm Princess of Wales. See listing. Rating: NNN
An octogenarian retired composer (a relaxed, witty and urbane Michael Caine) and his slightly younger film director pal (an energetic Harvey Keitel), meet for their annual reunion at a spectacular Swiss spa.
Aphorisms roll off Caine’s tongue, but despite his infectious levity, he’s a wounded man. A musician so famous he’s being offered a knighthood, he’s most at ease conducting a group of mooing cows with bells in an Alpine meadow.
Keitel, meanwhile, can’t wait to finish a new script, his “masterpiece” – needing only the presence of the star with whom he’s made 11 films (an acerbic Jane Fonda at her bitchiest).
Youth, not at all helped by Sorrentino’s tin ear for English, doesn’t reach the heights of his Oscar-winning The Great Beauty. Perhaps it’s the emptiness of spa culture.
