Youth Without Youth

For his first movie in a long time, Francis Coppola enters David Lynch territory. This is a weird, sci-fi love story that feels like they’re making up the rules as they go along. Tim Roth is solid, as is his pretty co-star Alexandra Maria Lara. But the plot and tone are inconsistent and bizarre leaps in logic are abundant. Allegiance to the novels’ structure seems to be the reason, but it can't be said enough: movies and novels are two different things. Sometimes they don’t always translate. Coppola gets kudos for screaming out of the gate with something this… um… impressionistic, but, as I’ve said before – ambiguity is a crutch. It’s a lot harder to be clear.