Youth

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Paolo Sorrentino/Starring: Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano and Jane Fonda

Paolo Sorrentino has established himself as one of film's premier visual stylists, as is evident with his new film Youth; a beautifully surreal story that induces a state that is something akin to narcotized bliss. It is also a film that challenges our perceptions; leaving us unable to properly sort fantasy from reality; dreams from waking consciousness. It leads us many places and when we think we have a firm grasp of what may be happening or what we may have seen, its final scene reminds us of how foolish we are to believe everything we see.
And as one might expect, youth and old age are pervasive themes but Sorrentino also has much to say about artists and how they are often helpless in controlling perception of their own work.

Sorrentino's story takes place in an alpine resort, where an American film director named Mick Boyle (a terrific Harvey Keitel) spends time working on the skeleton for a story with his creative team for his next project. Also at the resort is Mick's British friend Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine; also terrific); a celebrated composer who is approached by the Queen's emissary to request a performance of the works for which he is most known; music he believes to be his most accessible. The scene where the emissary pleads with Ballinger reveals the composer's stubbornness, as he refuses the Queen's request. Why Ballinger would refuse such a prestigious performance is revealed later.

As we get to know some of the resort guests, we also get to know the resort and its breathtaking surroundings. The majestic spread of mountain peaks and the green, grassy hillsides provide a beautiful backdrop for the dramas that unfold in and around the hotel.

Among other people we meet at the resort is a young American actor named Jimmy Tree, who, like Ballinger, is famous for work he is not especially proud of; that of a robot in a big budget Hollywood production. Another artist in retreat is a rotund man who we can guess is some sort of musician of international renown. His very presence elicits stares and later a mob of autograph seekers.

But we see other guests and the hotel personnel, whose mysterious lives beg examination but remain riddles for our tantalized imagination. One such example is a couple that provides bemusement and amusement for Fred and Mick, who bet on whether the the silent, uncommunicative pair will actually speak to one another at dinner. Seemingly suffering from mutual loathing, we discover later the couple feel anything but.

But at the story's center is Fred and Mick's friendship, which stretches back decades. Now in old age, the friend's keep tabs on the other's health; going so far as to share information about their latest micturition. While Fred wanders about the grounds and enjoys the resorts spa accommodations, Mick brainstorms with his young collaborators as they try to hammer out a story from volleyed ideas.

Sorrentino's storytelling methods are never conventional. As the story progresses, we begin to wonder if what we are seeing is real or some kind of dream. Strikingly odd images, such as one of expressionless guests walking slowly in a queue or a medium shot of reclining patrons in a pool make one feel the hotel is some sort of strange afterlife or weigh station for souls.

Ballinger's daughter Lena (Rachel Weisz), who also serves as his assistant, leaves the resort to join her boyfriend-who also happens to be Mick's son-on a Malaysian holiday, only to return when she discovers he is in love with another woman. The awkwardness of the problem become uncomfortably acute for Fred and Mick, particularly when Lena's boyfriend shows up with his new paramour.

Adding to Lena's misery is her relationship with her father, which has never been ideal. A poignant scene comes later in the film during Fred and Lena's massage, when she expresses her disappointment and anger about Fred's failings as a father. What comes to light are his numerous infidelities and his dalliance with a man; all at the expense of a wife who overlooked his unsavory, extracurricular activities. The shot of their ill-clad bodies are an apt visual metaphor for truths laid bare; naked truths in near naked bodies.

Images of youthful bodies juxtaposed with old and infirm frames are common; always calling attention to the film's overarching theme. Fred and Mick, though hardly blind to the youthful allure of the goddess-like perfection of female bodies who lounge near the pool, never try to mitigate their fading virility by trying to seduce them. In a Hollywood movie, Fred and Mick would try to bed the young women to salve the egos of the male audience.

One of my favorite scenes in the film takes place on the summit of a ski-run, as Mick and his young team look out over the incredible alpine peak expanse. In trying to explain to the young gathering how one's perspective changes as one grows old, Mick has one member of his group peer through both ends of an observation scope to vividly illustrate his point.

While Ballinger receives the Queen's emissary again for another summons, Lena's heartbreak takes an unexpected turn into good fortune. Meanwhile an actress Mick collaborated with many times in the past and whose participation in his movie guarantees it being made arrives at the hotel to give him disappointing news. The conversation that follows unearths old animosities and unbearable truths.
As for Ballinger, we see what has become of his wife during a scene where he pays her a visit in Venice. The way he lovingly gazes at his wife tells us the marriage wasn't necessarily the disaster Lena has portrayed it to be.

The film ends with a tragedy and a triumph though the last shot leaves some doubt as to whether anything we've seen is truth, a dream or merely the product of imagination.

As in his film The Great Beauty, Sorrentino's fascination with the themes of youth/beauty is very conspicuous. And in exploring said themes, he never succumbs to sentimentality nor does he try to spin the grim realities of aging into something fuzzy and golden. For Sorrentino, old age dispenses many bitter and ugly truths about one's life and relationships, which we disguise or rewrite into palatable lies. And as the characters try desperately to stave off old age and physical atrophy in the hotel's saunas, swimming pools and massage rooms, so too do they mend and rehabilitate truth to allow themselves to live.

Aside from the lovely camera work, the performances ground an otherwise otherworldly film. Harvey Keitel gives one of his most affecting performances while Michael Caine's Ballinger has a past that is almost irredeemably messy; a flawed history expressed in his weary face. Rachel Weisz almost steals the show with several, fine scenes; most notably in her angry monologue during said massage.

I haven't seen another film like Youth in this year-end movie season. In fact, I haven't seen a film like Sorrentino's in some time. His style almost seems like some kind of throwback to a time when filmmakers weren't afraid to marry story to surreal imagery; as we see so often in David Lynch's films.

What we ultimately see onscreen is magical and intoxicating. In a season of exceptional films, Sorrentino's stands on its own. He has firmly established himself as one of Italy's major cinematic talents in the 21st century.