Losing a grip on 'Youth'

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Pity poor Francis Ford Coppola.

Few complain anymore that David Lynch's films are incoherent or inexplicable. However, the director of such cinematic classics as "The Godfather" and "The Conversation" doesn't have the luxury of being too experimental, if early reviews of "Youth Without Youth" are any indication.

Critics have said just those things about Mr. Coppola's first film in a decade. They grumble that the movie is too unfocused, tackling too many big subjects, without making much sense in the process.

But you shouldn't go into this film, based on a meandering novella by Romanian religion and philosophy scholar Mircea Eliade, expecting a straight-across narrative as in, say, Mr. Coppola's adaptations of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and John Grisham's "The Rainmaker."

The problem with "Youth Without Youth" isn't that Mr. Coppola is overreaching. It's that, in exploring the nature of time, consciousness and love, he's forgotten that his greatest talent lies in telling a gripping story.

Tim Roth stars as Dominic Matei, a 70-year-old scholar in 1938 Bucharest who despairs of ever finishing his life's work, a treatise on such grand subjects as "the origins of language, human consciousness, even the idea of time itself." He's already lost the love of his life, Laura (Alexandra Maria Lara), because of his commitment to his book.

Struck by lightning one day crossing the street, Dominic is first barely alive and then suddenly a superman. His body is miraculously restored to its state of 30 years before. His hair is thick and brown again, new teeth sprout to replace the ones he's lost. And, most intriguingly, he can absorb the contents of an entire book in seconds just by holding it in his hands. Mr. Roth gives an engaging though not exceptional performance as a young man who still carries himself like an old one.

Just when it seems that Dominic has been given the tools he needs to complete his book, two things happen: The Nazis try to seize control of him, and he meets a woman who looks exactly like the long-dead Laura. Veronica (also Miss Lara) is also struck by lightning, and what happens to her will give Dominic the material he needs for his work, if he's willing to sacrifice the woman he loves once more.

The plot of "Youth Without Youth" isn't really that complicated, so I'm not sure why so many critics find the film so hard to follow. It's the mystical elements that prove the most mysterious. Perhaps these reviewers just dozed off a few times — watching a man try to write a book that we are told next to nothing about makes for a pretty boring two hours.

**1/2

TITLE: "Youth Without Youth"

RATING: R (some sexuality and nudity)

CREDITS: Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola based on the novella by Mircea Eliade

RUNNING TIME: 124 minutes

WEB SITE: www.sonyclassics.com/youthwithoutyouth

MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS