Review of The Fountain (2006) by Gary C — 06 Nov 2012
A surgeon desperately searches for a cure for his wife's cancer while absorbing himself into the world represented by her final novel. Darren Aronofsky is nothing if not brave and once again willingly sacrifices mainstream acceptability to realise his vision.
Similar in format to 2046 in that fantasy and reality are happening in parallel on screen, The Fountain is a representation of his musings on mortality, love and loss and coming to terms with personal grief.
It is a truly stunning film to look at with an appropriately beautiful score, complimented nicely by a surprisingly sensitive performance by Hugh Jackman. Unfortunately the film's strength is also its weakness in that Aronofsky gets so carried away with his sumptuous metaphorical imagery that the characters are almost left by the wayside.
This makes it difficult to form an emotional attachment to them and therefore fails to make the kind of impact that the subject matter really deserves. It is however, visually and aurally enchanting and has the kind of imagination and invention that is all too often missing from mainstream cinema and for that reason alone it is worth 90 minutes of anybody's time.
This review of The Fountain (2006) was written by Gary C on 06 Nov 2012.
The Fountain has generally received positive reviews.
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