Youth Without Youth
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 0.5
If you turn the title into a mathematical equation, wouldn't it be Youth minus Youth = Nothing? How truly fitting for such high-minded, meaningless rubbish: an unsuccessful professor (Tim Roth) - who believes he's wasted his life - gets struck by lightning and not only survives but becomes younger and smarter (and is granted telepathic superpowers!); meanwhile, there's a woman struck by lightning that speaks in tongues but is aging rapidly (the key point of all of this is that umbrellas apparently need warning labels on them). I understand the 'personal' aspect of this - Coppola's 1996 film Jack was also about growing old quickly and the fear of death - but as with Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion, working out one's own personal fears can sometimes make for tedious cinema. Leave the moving images to your daughter, Mr. Coppola - she's got a good handle on things.
