Review of The Fountain (2006) by Seth S — 07 Aug 2014

The Fountain illustrates the desperate grasping at straws of a filmmaker trying to rationalize his vision of the afterlife. The film is written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, a highly acclaimed filmmaker with whom I had no previous experience. The movie is enormous, spanning thousands of years. And yet, through all the dense story, it's clear that Aronofsky is just babbling away, hoping to find some solace in his convoluted theories about life after death.

The story follows the same character, reincarnated throughout time. At least I think he's reincarnated ... could be mistaken. In his earliest form, he is a Spanish conquistador tasked with finding the Tree of Life. In the present day, he is a loving husband, trying to find a cure for his wife's brain tumor. In the future, he is a space traveler, floating through the Great Unknown in a bubble.

The Fountain is supposedly a "thought provoking" movie. The director has stated that "...sometimes you see movies that just stay with you and create a conversation and I think that's always been a goal to try and do something like that." Basically, that's a long way of saying you don't have to understand the movie to enjoy it. It's supposed to be many things to many people. Translation: Aronofsky doesn't even understand his movie. He just threw a bunch of esoteric ideas and confounding visuals at the audience, then insisted that they have a deep spiritual reaction. I hate it when directors use their considerable visual filmmaking talents to try to tell some flimsy, life changing story (à la Malick's The Tree of Life).

Maybe if you're really smart, if you devote weeks, months, years to understanding this movie - you might put all the pieces of the puzzle together to form something absolutely mind-blowing. But I realized about half-way through that the movie really isn't worth the effort. I'm sure I missed 90% of the symbolism, and that's really just fine by me. I get the overreaching idea. Death is the gateway to new life. When we die, we just go out into nature-eternal.

Wait, no you don't. My religion (Christianity) does not teach this. Catholicism doesn't teach this. Hinduism comes close, but doesn't quite teach this. Now, these religions do not agree on the method of getting to "paradise." But they all agree that life is leading somewhere. The Fountain, on the other hand, preaches that we transcendentally become one with nature at death. I don't agree with this, and I'm sure many others would not agree as well.

So, since I reject the film's core concept, that doesn't leave me much movie left. But there still is some good. The middle, modern day storyline is manipulative, yes. But it's also easily the most effective. I cared about the husband and wife. His search for a cure was admittedly compelling. But every time I would begin to get invested in this passable portion of the narrative, I was hit with either the future or past story-lines, neither of which did anything but make me want to jab a pencil into my thigh.

Because The Fountain is a really boring movie. And it's not because the whole thing is preposterously pretentious. The film is so dense, it's almost impossible to enjoy any of it. Heaven forbid Aronofsky offered the audience anything that wasn't virtually unattainable. The movie is only 96 minutes long. And yet, sitting through the whole thing is an effort of herculean proportions. I've seen movies that are two and a half hours long that are infinitely more digestible than this film. Because, other than parts of the modern storyline, something always makes the film particularly unpleasant.

In the flashbacks to conquistador Hugh Jackman, the production values are noticeably atrocious. Everything looks like "dress up on the movie set." With the limited budget, these scenes have an incredibly small scale. It looks very cheap.

The future scenes boast a bit more of the budget. These scenes, of a bald Jackman floating through space in his bubble-ship, trying to get his Tree of Life wife to Xibalba (or whatever the heck is going on) do look visually impressive. (Though I was struck with the yearn to pop the bubble throughout the entire film.) Still, while these scenes may look cool, they also feature the most pretentious filmmaking this movie has to offer. It all leads to a climax that is at both times unintentionally hilarious and completely contemptible.

The one and only thing holding the movie back from utter detestableness is the central performance by Hugh Jackman. The guy can do next to no wrong in my eyes. He sells the performance so hard, especially in the modern day storyline, it's impossible not to have some form of strong emotional feelings. Sadly, the character is entirely one dimensional. We realize that he is totally committed to saving his wife. But that's it. No defining personality traits, no quirks. That might imply that I think the movie needed to be longer to flesh out the character - but purge that thought from your head right now. This movie is more than long enough just as it is.

Rachel Weisz is the only other performance worth mentioning. She also does a serviceable job, but she is overshadowed by Jackman's colossal effort. The character, much like Jackman's, is entirely existing in one dimension. She's an unpainted canvas ... which isn't Weisz's fault, she didn't write the script.

The musical score by Clint Mansell is one of the more impressive aspects of the film. It makes the story seem all the more introspective, with its academic, Philip Glass sound. It's definitely not a bad score, but now I equate the music to the movie. And listening to it recalls memories of the insufferable 96 minutes I spent in front of this film. Sorry Clint, I won't be listening to your score ever again, in movie or out of it.

So slip on your horned rim glasses and sharpen your no. 2 pencil, because you, the film critic or audience member, will probably feel obligated to dissect this movie way more than it deserves. Throughout the film, Rachel Weisz whispers the line: "Finish it." That was my one hope and prayer for the vast majority of the movie. Finish it! Finish it please! Ah well, hooray for Darren Aronofsky, aye plebeians! One of the most acclaimed filmmaking minds of our generation.

Sheesh...

"Death is the road to awe." 2.5/10.