70-year-old Romanian linguistics professor Dominic Matei (Tim Roth) is struck by lightning on Easter Day 1938, while on his way to commit suicide, since he has never been able to retain a meaningful relationship and can't seem to complete his life's work, a book exploring the origins of language. He is burned to a crisp on the street, but amazes his doctors with a speedy recovery. As the bandages start to come off, Professor Stanciulescu (Bruno Ganz), who has been caring for him, is stunned to discover a man in his 40's underneath. It seems that the lightning has caused Dominic to recapture his youth, complete with young, new teeth pushing out his old and decrepit ones. Dominic soon discovers that as his body has been rejuvenated, his mind has expanded to basically make him the smartest man alive. He can insert himself into people's dreams, control people's actions and learn languages while he sleeps. His abilities soon place him on the Nazi radar and before long, he gains a new identity from the helpful doctor who has become his close friend.
While abroad and using his powers to stay one step ahead of those in pursuit of him, he comes across the path of a lovely young woman, Veronica (Alexandra Maria Lara), one who looks almost exactly like the lost love of his youth, Laura. Since Laura left him because he valued his work over her, and married another man, then died a year later in childbirth, we aren't exactly sure whether Veronica is supposed to be the reincarnation of Laura or simply a girl who looks like her. At any rate, while on a hike shortly after the two meet, Veronica is also struck by lightning. Instead of becoming youthful, since she is already young, she instead begins to channel the spirit of Rupini, an ancient Indian mystic. Since Dominic is a master of languages, the two become drawn to one another and fall in love. As Veronica continues to have bouts of regression, Dominic learns more and more of the ancient languages, but is torn because he knows that Veronica's regression to the point of origin for language may mean her demise. She begins to rapidly age and grow tired and weak and Dominic believes he is to blame and must leave her, although she begs him to stay. In the meantime, since being struck, Dominic has been struggling with multiple versions of himself. He will chat with one or sometimes two copies of himself, one of which encourages him to complete his life's work, even to Veronica's detriment. He and the girl part ways and we later see her walking with a child at some point in the 1960's (under Dominic's watchful eye) and she has indeed regained her youth and beauty. Or at least, that's what the viewer surmises, because so much is merely inferred.
This movie completely confused me. While it was shot in high def and has some truly beautiful visual moments, I just found it too confusing to be enjoyable. The story skipped around a good bit and things were not properly explained. I hate to dog out a movie for trying something new and philosophical, but it was simply too "art house" for me. Tim Roth and Alexandra Marie Lara were excellent in their roles (although not really believable in the kissing scenes), but Youth Without Youth tends to be slow and boring and the plot is not cohesive enough to bring about a satisfying end. Also, on a side note but still worth mentioning, many different languages are used by many people in the movie and no English subtitles are offered. This was somewhat annoying to me. If you are really into art house flicks and are up on your philosophy and ancient culture, this movie might be your thing. But for the masses, it's probably not going to be number one in their Netflix queue.
