The Fountain -movie review

It has taken me awhile to process this film into anything like coherent comment for my review. I don't know if this difficulty says more about me or the film itself - but I dare anyone to not find The Fountain at least a bit challenging in the comphrension department. On that note, your interest in non-linear visual philosophy will likely determine your enjoyment of the film. That, or your use of some recreational "support".

What is undeniable about The Fountain is that it is visually stunning. As the big-name follow-up to Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, Fountain offers up a dreamy and intriguing experience. And this time it is Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz in a time-twisting tale of love, life and death.

The film opens with a bald Jackman floating in space, facing hallucinations and talking kindly to a dying tree. I know - it feels exactly like it sounds. Time and place are unknown. Jump to the present where a modern Hugh is obsessed with finding a cure to the brain tumor that plagues his lady love. He is so intent on stopping her death that he is missing out on experiencing life with her before it ends. Weisz's Izzie is writing a book - "The Fountain" - about a conquistador's search for the tree of life (aka = fountain of youth) in South America. He is sent upon this quest by Queen Isabella and a third story begins. From this point the film becomes a collage of images drawn from the three paths flashing back and forth between the incarnations of the characters at various points in their quests.

Finally, the tree is located, the loss is accepted, and the path to everlasting "life" is found. However amid the allusions of life=death and a final fantastical sequence with a Mayan warrior, body-devouring plants and glowing space nebula, The Fountain falters. Its philosophizing is lost in the meandering musings. If you are looking for an outrageous optical diversion it may be exactly what you need. If you are aiming for a straight-forward story (of any kind) then it may be a filmic frustration.