Why was this so poorly recieved?

The movie is being pushed as a love story, which I find beyond preposterous, and if that's what a viewer is looking for or expecting, they're going to end up confused, as the love stories are mere subplots supporting the Faustian theme.

Btw I agree with you =)

I personally hated the movie. It was one of the more boring movies I have seen in the past 5 years. While there were glimmers of truly compelling emotions and actions, they were so muddled in language and pretention that I wanted to fall asleep.

I thought this was a beautiful film. I too, found myself thinking at times that it was art. However, I also found myself thinking that it was a tad silly or over-done at other times.

As a whole, I can't say that its a truly great film, though I can appreciate that it is a well-crafted one and respect Coppola's effort. It just doesn't quite work for me for some reason, and I can't entirely pinpoint why. At times, its a bit too confusing; at others, Roth's voice-over explanations seem sort of silly, almost acknowledging how difficult the film can be to follow. Yet, all I have beyond this is a gut feeling that this movie just doesn't work, rather than concrete criticism.
I can, to a certain extent, imagine why this film was reviewed poorly. Contrary to another poster's suggestion, I believe there are a number of film critics that are learned, thoughtful and beyond dismissing a film just because it's not your average action-adventure/romantic comedy/popcorn fare, among them A.O. Scott and Roger Ebert. Though I can't say I always agree with Ebert's opinions, I do uniformly respect them, and I believe that Ebert gave a fair, sensitive review of this film(which I do happen to agree with).

In another thread on this movie, a poster suggested this film was potentially destined to become a cult-classic. I can imagine this prediction coming into fruition. Perhaps this movie is too far ahead of its time. Perhaps one day all naysayers like Ebert and myself will finally come around and proclaim it to be a masterpiece. Who knows...

it was just a great movie, great peace of art actually!

I think it was Coppola's story himself, telling us how you could be a young without youth, and how you could be an old with youth, what is the game of "passing time", and how the love memories would not been deleted during your life.

but the thing is a lot of people don't like Coppola and his movies like The Godfother.

but I personally appreciate his job in YWY.

I was angry at first, like you, but I realized that there is no reason to be. This is not a movie made for the general mass, not a Hollywood overpaid production looking for immense revenues (and Thanks God for that - enough of that crap!), not for action seekers or syrupy drama lovers. This movies is for thinkers, for people that enjoy searching for the mysteries of our souls.
So don't be upset, as I am sure Coppola never intended to make this movie for everybody to love(which will be utterly impossible), but maybe for his own pleasure and for the ones like him. And sharing this pleasure with a selective few should make you proud.
Do I sound like a snob? Good! - it means I am "snobbing" out all those saying that this movie was bad!

I can't understand why it is getting panned so much, but I guess these sort of films will always be underappreciated (see "The Fountain", people calling it pretentious crap is breaking my heart).

I am ok with people not liking it, because it is of a very special kind of movie and certainly not for everyone.

But I will try to get it out to as many people as possible.

Why??
It is very simple: because a lot of people refuse to think. For a lot of them it's easier to watch some 'action' movies where half contains a fight and the second half contains a car race.
The movie, and especially the plot, is a masterpiece. For sure the movie didn't have a big budget, there are not special effects and so on, but in spite all of this is a great movie.

Peace!

Did anyone else have difficulty staying awake?