Review of The Fountain (2006) by Nguyen Thuy H — 01 Jan 2013

No and no. And Darren displayed a genuine lack of understanding of why people hate this film. It's not because people do not want to hear that "Death is inevitable and we must come to terms with it".

It's because he does not know how to deal with such a theme. The fault comes from such a primary annoyance (don't ever think that a portent musical score can actually substitute genuine emotions) to a full-blown offense (if your three stories reinstate the same thing again and again, then why even bother tricking the audiences with three different time frames, each feeling mundane and uninteresting as hell? The only reason is that you are trying to show off!).

But then, I have to admit, you know, that the film is not as lazy as...The Wrestler or Black Swan, which is the only pleasure that I can derive from it. It's embarrassing to watch, but at least, I know some work is going in here.