About the Soundtrack: "Youth Without Youth" marked the return of legendary directory, Francis Ford Coppola back to the Director's chair after a 10 year absence. Too bad it wasn't a triumphant one.  The film baffled many viewers on its way to becoming a minor footnote this holiday season with many citing an all too confusing plot as the key reason why the film fails.  No matter, it's still nice seeing Coppola getting back into the swing of things.

 

Also making a return to the world of cinema, all be it with much less fanfare,  is composer Osvaldo Golijov, who teamed up with Coppola to create the score for the film.  The soundtrack featuring his music and some classical excerpts offers a generous running time and is available from Deutsche Gramaphon Records, the eclectic label that recently released "The Kite Runner" earlier this year.

 

What You Need to Know:  Hey, wasn't this the type of movie George Lucas wanted to make? A film drubbed by critics but artistically driven?  Well, with nearly an incomprehensible plot, "Youth Without Youth" is a confusing picture that offers music that is as schizophrenic as the movie is.  The bizarre plot takes place in the 1930s, before the world begins its war in ernest, and centers around a lead character who sees his aging reversed.  He is then hunted by the Axis powers so that they can tap into the power of this reversal.  While the premise is interesting in a "Final Countdown" sort of way, the sheer twists and turns of the story arc apparently made this one a tricky premise.  Likewise for the soundtrack; this was the most challenging score to listen to this entire year.

 

In general, the style of music in this score feels much like the romantic dramas from the 40s and 50s, in parts.  However, that sentence is where the ode to old fashioned film scores end.  The music is all over the place in this one.  In general, listening to music should be a somewhat pleasant experience, one would think, but after hearing this score, I would have to rethink that.  With all due respect, it takes a very unique taste in music to enjoy this one. 

 

The score is full of odd musical combinations and tones and never does get its act together.  While there are some extremely nice moments when the music becomes more conventional, in an old school, nostalgic sense, there are just too many odd styles to contend with to really get involved. Had Coppola permitted Golijov to remain a bit more conventional, than this score would have earned a better fate. Truth be told, when I reached the last few tracks, I started skipping forward a bit to reach the end as I had my fill of it.  When I was done with the experience, it felt as though I had been put under an odd trance of some sort! 

 

Final Grade: As I guess you can summarize, I am not giving this one a recommendation.  I found it to be an odd experimentation that didn't achieve any type of successful results and perhaps that's because the movie itself was a bit too ambitious.  I am sure that Osvaldo Golijov is a capable composer, but this one really didn't show me much.  Unless you are really clamoring for an alternative film score sound, I would avoid this one if I were you.