Youth Without Youth

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Youth Without Youth ★★ 2007 (R)

A disappointing return to directing for Francis Ford Coppola after a ten-year hiatus. Dominic (Roth) is a 70-year-old Romanian linguist who fears he'll die alone a failure and, on the eve of World War II, decides to kill himself. But his suicide plans are interrupted when he's struck by lightning and somehow begins to grow younger. Scientists of the Third Reich snatch him up for observation and soon he meets Veronica (Lara), a sexy German spy who is coincidentally also struck by lightning, but begins to age rapidly. A muddled and tiring story that would've been better suited as a “Twilight Zone” episode. 124m/C DVD . US Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Andre Hennicke, Alexandra Pirici; D: Francis Ford Coppola; W: Francis Ford Coppola; C: Mihai Malaimare Jr.; M: Osvaldo Golijoy.