From Children of Men to the Batman movies to The Prestige and on to Is There Anybody There?, Harry Brown and Inception, Michael Caine has been on one almighty 'run' of quality roles over the last decade. It's some feat when you're still enhancing a two-Oscar CV into your eighties, and to the glorious list above can now be added Youth. Caine won Best Actor at the European Film Awards in December for this bittersweet stock take of life, love and loss - for all the current Academy Awards controversy there's an argument that he should have also been in the shake-up for his work here.
Caine plays Fred Ballinger, a composer who's put down pen his baton and sees nothing left in the world to excite him. At the insistence of daughter and PA Lena (Weisz), Fred is getting the twice over at a spa in the Swiss Alps, where film director pal Mickey (Keitel) is trying to knock the script for his twilight tour de force into shape.
In between treatments Fred and Mickey walk, talk about old times, interrogate each other on their urinary output and bet on whether a couple they see at dinner each night will ever have a conversation. To the outsider it seems that Mickey has far more of an appetite for the here and now, but the arrival of a royal emissary, and a friendship with a young actor (Dano), may just shake Fred out of his stupor.
Having won many new fans with his Oscar-winning The Great Beauty, Sorrentino will once again increase his posse with Youth. Here gorgeous visuals and great music - no spoilers - do wonders for eyes and ears while Caine and his co-stars prove the best of visitors to both head and heart - you may be surprised at just how much you well up watching. At times, the pace is a little slow but there's always another treasure to stockpile soon enough.
As for a happy ending, well Youth will really make you think about the most important one of all - your own.
Harry Guerin
