The Fountain

So I took in another flick this week. I really liked Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, so I thought I'd check out his new venture, The Fountain. It's very interesting.

I truly believe Aronofsky's work will be studied in film classes in future generations. This is not a chronological narrative, but an interweaving of three different stories featuring the same people in three different time periods. Starring Hugh Jackman and beautiful Rachel Weisz as two people in love. In the near-present, Tom (Jackman) and Izzy (Weisz) are husband and wife. Izzy is suffering from terminal cancer and Tom is a doctor, obsessed with finding a cure for her disease. There is often repeated images from the present interspersed with scenes from the past. Everything is out of order and topsy-turvy. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on. There are flashbacks to 15th century Spain, we learn later it's a result of a book Izzy is writing. In the book and in the past, Weisz is Queen Isabella of Spain and Jackman is Tomas, a conquistador sent on a mission to find the Tree of Life. In the future, Jackman is Tom Creo, an astronaut travelling in a bubble through space to find Nebular, the fading star the Mayans believe is the Underworld.


I read that this story is based on one written by Aronofsky after his parents were diagnosed with terminal cancer. In the near present time with Izzy and Tommy's characters, Izzy comes to terms with death and is not afraid to die. Tommy, however, seems to be in denial with his constant testing at the hospital on monkeys to find a cure. In the future, Tom Creo is alone in his bubble with a Tree. He has lived forever, but is alone. The visuals for that section of the film are stunning and fantastical. One of the criticisms I've read people have with this is that it is touted as an eternal love story. But it is not the typical mushy love story people are used to seeing. I believe it is more about acceptance of death, but that is just my interpretation.


The film is in Aronofsky's usual trippy style with fragmented images to that repetitive violin music he likes so much. It's definitely not a story that pulls you into a filmic reality, where you suspend your disbelief for 90 minutes. It's more of an experience. Every single one of my fine arts profs say that the post modernist movement is over and we are now entering another movement, which is still forming and has yet to be named. I say this because although this film bombed at the box office and the boards on IMDB have people either loving or hating it. For some reason, I think it will make an impact. It is confusing, yes, but also very different from the fluff that generally gets shown at the multiplex. I also read that Brad Pitt was originally supposed to star in this, but because of creative differences with Aronofsky, he backed out. I'm glad Aronofsky stuck to his guns.

The Fountain
7/10
Recommended: if you are a fan of Aronofsky's previous work, you want to experience a very unconventional film or you like Jackman and Weisz
Best line: Death is the road to awe.