Last Night we saw “Youth.” The Short Review: We Liked it.

And, in case you’re interested, here are a few more words on Youth.

As the film ended, I saw that we had watched a movie where everyone in the audience remained seated until the credits had all run. Normally we stay until they start naming the food trucks, by which time I’m squirming, and Jan, too, has seen enough. In part because of how the film credits played, but mainly because I was so entranced, not really ready for it all to end that I had no problem joining the aficionados all the way until the screen went dark and the lights came up.

In that moment I knew I liked what I saw. And, as the moments passed, I realized I had really liked what I saw. But. In those moments right at the end I didn’t quite have the words to say why. Which, I guess, is appropriate in a film where the plot is not easy to lay out, the whole thing more an impressionist experience.

The story turns on octogenarian Fred Ballinger, played by Michael Caine, a retired composer of classical music, who is spending a season at a luxury resort in Switzerland. His companions include his old friend the filmmaker Mick Boyle portrayed by Harvey Keitel, and Fred’s daughter Ledna, played by Rachel Weisz. The film is written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, while the music so central to the plot, is beautifully written by David Lang.

Youth is essentially a meditation that certainly includes youth, but is more centered in aging, of memory and forgetting, of meaning and meaninglessness, of longing, and ultimately of love. And to my mind appropriate to such a project, it includes a cast worthy of the late Frederico Fellini. I was particularly taken in by Paul Dano’s Mick Boyle, and of course Jane Fonda’s Brenda Morel. But, the whole cast was wondrous, playing out the various roles of human dreams of which we only get to witness flashes.

The standout for me among an amazing array of minor characters, if the word minor can be used in a film that might accurately be described as lacking a real center, is the young masseuse portrayed by Luna Zimic Mijovic. I can’t recall the words exactly, but there is a point where she is pressed to say something, but can’t, as she responds, not because as she says she has nothing to say, but because she knows and says through touch, and we know from what happens, she also knows and says from movement. For her, it seems, life is a dance.

When I looked the movie up this morning I see that it has generally been well received. Rotten Tomatoes, my favorite review aggregator averages the considered opinions of one hundred, twenty-one critics for this film, giving it a positive score of 74%. The audience score followed closely, with 73%. Youth opened at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it was positively received, was nominated for although failed to win the Palm D’Or, and has since won a number of critical awards, and nominations continue to be made for it and its players. Time will tell on the formal critical acclaim. Appropriately, I think, given the grand themes of the film… It’s rated “R” for graphic nudity, and some sexual scenes.

Those who don’t like the movie, really don’t. Talky, and filled with sophomoric philosophy. And, of course, you either like or loathe the procession of felliniesque characters.

Me, I liked it. A lot.

If you are interested in the grand parade of our human condition, and those themes of memory and forgetting, of longing, and, of course, of love, and don’t expect tidy answers, you might, as well.