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From the preening irony of the title to the strained attempt at importance, there's nothing in writer-director Paolo Sorrentino's drama "Youth" that doesn't telegraph its bloated pretentiousness.

Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) is a retired conductor who takes his usual holiday at a Swiss spa, chatting about nothing and everything with his best friend, Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel). Mick is a film director who has brought along his young screenwriters to hash out the script for what he thinks will be his last great "statement" film. Fred, on the other hand, is fending off a request to perform for Queen Elizabeth II while also trying to console his assistant, Lena (Rachel Weisz) — who's also his daughter — whose husband has just left her.

Sorrentino provides languid views of the spa and its hyper-gorgeous inhabitants, while mixing in offbeat side characters such as Paul Dano's preening Johnny Depp-like movie star or Jane Fonda's brief turn as Mick's over-the-hill leading lady. Those techniques served him in his Oscar-winning Italian comedy "The Great Beauty," but here they devolve into a gorgeously shot but emotionally frivolous travelogue.

'Youth'

Opening Friday, Dec. 25, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas; rated R for graphic nudity, some sexuality and language; 124 minutes.