Review of The Fountain (2006) by Vcoheda — 25 Nov 2006

The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky is a very interesting film, dealing with the great themes (and dichotomies) of life & death, science & religion, temporality & eternity, and especially of love and how it intersects through all of these.

It is also a movie which pushes the narrative technique to its farthest boundaries. At first, the movie seems strange and bizarre, incomprehensible (at times), yet it is always visually hypnotic and stimulating.

However, once you figure out that the three stories of past, present, and future actually all take place in the present -- that is, that they are all just different perspectives of one man (Jackman the scientist), and that the story in indeed very linear -- the movie starts to come together and make sense.

I would agree that some of the dialogue is poorly written, especially between the two leads, but the movie as a whole is undeniably rich, extremely ambitious (blending the conscious and unconscious, reality and fiction) and most importantly, original.