As you will see, I wasn’t enthralled with this indie flick but it has haunted me. Some of you will find it great and others will probably just be bored.
Youth (Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Paul Dano, Rachel Weisz, Jane Fonda) – Every few years, there is an offbeat, independent movie that grabs a lot of Oscar buzz but is often just weird. The Tree of Life is a most recent example. Nominated for Best Picture, it was intriguing and just plain bizarre. Other years, there are quirky, funny, poignant films like Quartet that grace the screen and transform audiences with their simplicity and human story. Youth falls right in the middle. It feels like Quartet but contains very odd and inexplicable symbolism like The Tree of Life.
This is a story of the trials, regrets, sorrows, secrets, aging, indulgences, and fantasies of the rich, famous and self-absorbed at an exclusive spa at the foot of the Alps in Switzerland. In effect, this is a camp for extravagant, mostly, old people.
The main characters are a retired composer and conductor (Fred Ballinger played by Michael Caine); a famous Hollywood director (Mike Boyle played by Harvey Keitel); and a star actor (Jimmy Tree played by Paul Dano). Ballinger and Boyle have been friends for 60 years and have visited the retreat together with their families often. Their relationship is comfortable, honest, and warm. Ballinger’s daughter (played by Rachel Weisz) and Tree’s son (Ed Stoppard) are married. Ballinger’s wife was a famed soprano, most famous for singing her husband’s sentinel work, Simple Songs, but she is gone now. Boyle is no longer married, and hangs around with an odd band of screenwriters trying to finish the script for his next movie project starring his muse and oft-leading lady, Brenda Morel (played by Jane Fonda, who doesn’t show up until 90 minutes into the film).
Ballinger has been invited by Queen Elizabeth II to be knighted, and she sends an emissary to ask him to conduct Simple Songs for Prince Philip on his birthday. He is adamant that he will never conduct that or anything again. He and Boyle take regular walks, watch the nightly entertainment, and spend much of their days observing (and placing wagers about) the other guests. These include a couple that never talks to each other and the new Miss Universe. Meanwhile, the young actor, Tree, is spending time at the resort before shooting his next movie in Europe. He likes hanging around with Ballinger, providing witty observations and cringing at the fact that most people only remember him for the robot movie for which he is most famous.
The film features some wonderful photography of the Alps and the landscape around the resort. The shots of the guests are often very sterile, quiet, secluded, and devoid of emotion or joy. Even the nightly entertainers are unenthusiastic and boring. In fact, the entire film is just that. While Italian writer/director Paolo Sorrentino, (whose credits are largely shorts and TV) uses silence to punctuate the seemingly empty lives of the guests, he never seems to connect the audience to anyone except Ballinger.
Caine is fantastic as the ex-conductor. He provides a rich combination of resolve and reticence to this character. His love for his daughter, Lena, seems strong but he is somehow unattached. His reaction to her surprise announcement that her husband is going to leave her for a woman who is “good in bed” is more tepid than Boyle’s. We know that Ballinger is holding something back: Why does he not want to conduct for the Queen? He visits a cow pasture and “conducts” the wind but wants nothing to do with music anymore. Then he hears a young boy trying to play one of his compositions on a violin, and he helps him by repositioning his elbow. It is a nuanced performance, one of many by one of England’s greatest and most prolific actors.
As the story unwinds amidst Sorrentino’s empty pictures, we begin to learn Ballinger’s motivations. We also witness the unraveling of Boyle’s movie in a memorable scene between Keitel and Fonda. Hanoi Jane, whose screen rebirth in TV’s The Newsroom, Netflix’s Grace and Frankie, and in the film This is Where I Leave You reveals her ongoing beauty at 78, shows both her age and her acting chops. She has even been mentioned as a possible Oscar nominee but this is too small a role.
While I honestly didn’t enjoy this movie as I was watching it, I admit that I cannot get it out of my head. That is usually the mark of a really good film. In this case, I admit to being unsure if I would recommend it. As a character study, it is quite interesting. The acting is first-rate. But it is also strange and self-indulgent. Make sure you are in the mood for that if you choose to see it in the theater or at home.