The Fountain (2006)

Being a loser, I found myself trying to decide what movie to watch Saturday night rather than being out with friends. After a halfhearted attempt to watch The Wrestler and finish up my 2008 film roundup, I found myself looking at the director's Wikipedia page. In fact, given my utter lack of interest in all things wrestling-related, the only reason I was giving The Wrestler a shot was because it was directed by Darren Aronofsky, who also happened to direct Requiem for a Dream, which also happens to be a heartbreakingly depressing movie, among my favorites.

As I skimmed Aronofsky's page, I noticed that he directed The Fountain, a film whose name I had been seeing all over the place recently, but which I had never seen. I didn't know anything about it at all, really. But I'm always up for a blind watch, so I promptly acquired the movie in 1080p and pressed play.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but whatever it was, The Fountain wasn't it. The basic premise of the movie is that it follows three stories in three time periods (all starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz): a conquistador searching for the Tree of Life, a modern day scientist searching for the cure to his wife's cancer, and a mystical spacefarer in the distant future journeying across the universe with a strange tree. The movie jumps around between the three stories, but aside from the very beginning, I never found myself too confused or disoriented. The stories are thematically and perhaps even directly interwoven, and it is a rather interesting way to present what was apparently marketed as a science fiction film. There is really hardly any science fiction aspect to the movie at all, so don't think of it in that way. I would argue it's much more of a "fantasy" film, but I wouldn't pin it down to a genre. At any rate, I'm not going to divulge any more details of the story, but I assure you that it is an interesting one.

What I found to be easily the most impressive aspect of the movie were the visuals. The movie was on a smaller budget than Aronofsky would've liked, so fancy big budget effects were out of the question. So Aronofsky, the ambitious bastard, decided he wanted to go for the sort of visuals that wouldn't look outdated days from now, as 2001: A Space Odyssey accomplished (and this isn't the last time in this review you'll hear of Kubrick's magnum opus). So he went to a very specialized photography and shot an astonishing amount of footage of bacteria and chemicals growing and reacting in petri dishes. This footage combined with a greenscreen made for some mindboggling effects. Honestly, I think this is one of my favorite movies ever, visually. The overriding color is gold, as you can tell from the poster, and the color becomes a beautiful motif throughout the film. I'm really glad I was able to watch it in HD, you should too if you have the opportunity.

The acting is solid all around, though it's not mindblowing, and frankly, it doesn't need to be. Hugh Jackman has the strongest performance, with Ellen Burstyn (who previously starred in Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream) in a small role that she nevertheless manages to shine in. Rachel Weisz was quite suitable and I can't complain, but she didn't particularly impress me either. As I said, the acting isn't the best out there - not that it's bad by any stretch of imagination - but the acting really isn't the most important aspect of the film.

What really shined about the film, other than the visuals, was that it gave me a lot to think about. It has some really interesting themes relating to life, love, death, and immortality. And it's delightfully fun searching for and reflecting on the parallels between the three stories. The parallels aren't crammed down your throat (few things irk me more than when movies plainly state their themes and messages as if the viewer is incapable of figuring them out for themself), but they're quite clearly there. The climax, the culmination of all three stories, includes one particular short scene that absolutely blew my mind and gave me shivers. Absolutely fantastic.

There's one last thing I should mention, and that's the fact that The Fountain is an artsy film. There's no denying it. If you're the type of person who found 2001: A Space Odyssey, Apocalypse Now, or There Will Be Blood too artsy, long, plodding, pretentious, or pointless, then The Fountain is not for you. I could say that it'll be above your head, or that you're too unintelligent for it, or that it's a thinking man's movie, but I won't. I really can see how someone could consider the whole thing a load of overindulgent crap. So if you fall into the category mentioned, don't bother. Otherwise, I heartily recommend it as a film that will dazzle the eyes and intrigue the mind.