VISUALLY STUNNING BUT EMOTIONALLY THIN MEDITATION ON AGEING AND ARTISTRY
Paulo Sorrentino’s luxurious meditation on ageing and artistry has the visual splendour of his previous work. Yet by focusing on lush backdrops and thin characters, his ruminations on genius and the passing of time lack depth.

Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel star as Fred and Mick, a master composer and director respectively, whose stay in a decadent resort leads them to discuss how their pasts are slowly slipping from them. As Mick casts around for inspiration, his cinematic “testament” in progress tumbling out as mere cliché, Fred resists attempts to bring him in from retirement, fearful that performing his old music will evoke painful memories.
Amidst ruminations about memory and the fact that their best days are behind them, Fred and Mick share daily updates about their bodies, with their inability to urinate acting as a cruel metaphor for their dried-up creativity.

Caine and Keitel share easy chemistry, though they struggle to make Sorrentino’s dialogue feel natural. This unintentional distance between character and dialogue proves ironic, as the female characters are more explicitly silenced, reduced to muses, objects and vessels that merely recite lines written for them by men. The disconnect between the masculine ego and ignored female agency fuels interactions between the genders, as Fred and his spurned daughter (Rachel Weisz) mainly communicate via strained monologues.

Sorrentino’s lush cinematography captures the decadent beauty of wealth at the Swiss Alps resort, but also the claustrophobic, disconnected quality of spaces occupied by the hyper-privileged.

3.0