Based on a short story by the Romanian philosopher Mircea Eliade whose
best known work is probably 'The Sacred and the Profane', this is completely
unlike anything else Coppola has done. An elderly man falls and, while in
hospital, becomes much younger in appearance while retaining the memories
of his life. Tim Roth plays the central role extremely well in a mesmerising
film about belief and memory which demands another viewing to understand
its complexity. Unlike 'Benjamin Button' which is a straightforward tale of a
bay born physically old and regressing through life to die as an infant, 'Youth
Without Youth' is a far more complex examination of what it means to be
human.