Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, "The Fountain" is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world.
Probably Aronofsky's most accessible film (given the bitterness encased in Pi and Requiem for a Dream) this film will take you on a visual, musical and often emotional journey through one man's quest to save his dying wife.
Accompanied by an amazing score by Clint Mansell (who also worked on Darren's other projects) this film is not destined for the small screen, and requires a projector to appreciate the wonderful and often captivating visuals of the film.
Jackman's performance carries the film; he plays a man driven (almost beyond the edge) to find a cute for his wife's sickness and plays his part with incredibly clarity and emotion.
Don't be put off by what appears to initially be a very bizarre film (as I was) - give it thirty minutes and it'll have you captivated.
Unusual is the best word to sum up writer/director Darren Aronofsky's much maligned romantic sci-fi drama. Not dissimilar to Stanislaw Lem's 'Solaris' (though replacing rationality with spirituality) 'The Fountain' is told in three parts with the same characters at different stages in their lives, the stories cleverly converge into one as frantic Dr. Tommy (Hugh Jackman) battles against time to find the cure for cancer in an increasingly desperate bid to save his beloved wife Izzy (Rachel Weisz). Meanwhile, in Izzy's as yet incomplete novel 'The Fountain': medieval Spain suffers under the yoke of The Inquisition, and Queen Isabella (Weisz in all her spangled splendour) appoints conquistador lover Tomas (Jackman sporting an unkempt beard and silly tin hat) to lead an imperial expedition to Central America, deep into Mayan territory to find the so-called tree of life (i.e. the fountain of youth / immortality). Part three, the strangest by far, follows future world Major Tom (Jackman, now with a surprisingly cool 'bald as a coot' look) in a giant bubble, having deep & meaningful conversations with a tree whilst travelling through a nebula which, wait for it, represents 'Xibalba' the Mayan underworld.
And if all this sounds a tad pretentious, it's probably because it is a bit, and though its hard not to smirk when a glow-in-the-dark Tom levitates in the Lotus position, 'The Fountain' is a film with something on its mind, and certainly didn't deserve to be booed at Venice. Granted, its not one to rival 'The Matrix' (Arronofsky began writing this after seeing said film in 1999) and some may dread the Zen incense stick lighting, travels to Thailand, red bracelet wearing, 'Kula Shaker' listening, introspective-navel-gazing-hippy-cults its bound to attract. But at least Arronofsky, still living off the kudos of 'Requiem For A Dream', is working on original ideas, which has to count for something in an industry littered with remakes, comic book and toy-line adaptations.
Now Darren Aronofsky is, I'm told, quite a literary sort, so perhaps someone should've saved him from making the massive faux pas of romanticizing Spain's Queen Isabella. Casting his better half Rachel Weisz in the role is somewhat an ironic oversight; since the medieval monarch was an avowed anti-Semite who, along with King Ferdinand, The Inquisition & Cardinal Xermies, oversaw massacres, forced conversions, expulsions and economic persecutions of thousands of Spaniard Jews, Muslims and Unitarian Christians. Both stories: Dr Tommy in the present day and Queen Isabella in Spain, highlight their respective characters battle against inevitability (though the latter is undermined by its historical / political context). A conflict crystallised when Tommy likens death to a disease which must be defeated by science, whilst the nebula journey represents a shared redemption through the acceptance of a higher power. And though at times its feels as if you"ve got '2001: A Space Odyssey' going on in one section, 'Love Story' in the other and 'Aguirre: The Wrath Of God' in another, 'The Fountain' is ultimately redeemed, not by its palaeosophical pontificating, good SFX, razor sharp editing or snazzy camera moves, but by excellent performances from its leads (Hugh Jackman in particular). Some of the film's finer points are muddied by melodramatic clichés, and perhaps that was the reason behind Brad Pitt's departure from the project in 2004. 'The Fountain' tries to put across a life-lesson that most of us don't particularly like to dwell upon, i.e. its only when one begins to appreciate the harmonious equilibrium between life & death, that they can come to terms with reality & existence. For as the shouty Mayan warrior with the flaming sword repeatedly tells us: "Death is the road to awe"...apparently.
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Darren Aronofsky directs this elegaic time-travelling odyssey, in which Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz star in a series of storylines about a man's struggle to save the woman he loves. In one storyline, 16th-century Spanish conquistador Tomas Creo (Jackman) sets out to find the fabled Tree of Life in order to save his queen, Isabel (Weisz) from the Inquisition. In a modern-day storyline, Jackman is Tommy, a scientist desperately searching for the medical breakthrough that will save the life of his cancer-stricken wife, Izzie (Weisz). In a future timeline, Tom (Jackman) is a 26th-century astronaut travelling through deep space - and finally beginning to grasp the mysteries of life that have consumed him for so long.
Darren Aronofsky directs this elegaic time-travelling odyssey, in which Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz star in a series of storylines about a man's struggle to save the woman he loves. In one storyline, 16th-century Spanish conquistador Tomas Creo (Jackman) sets out to find the fabled Tree of Life in order to save his queen, Isabel (Weisz) from the Inquisition. In a modern-day storyline, Jackman is Tommy, a scientist desperately searching for the medical breakthrough that will save the life of his cancer-stricken wife, Izzie (Weisz). In a future timeline, Tom (Jackman) is a 26th-century astronaut travelling through deep space - and finally beginning to grasp the mysteries of life that have consumed him for so long.
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