Submitted by cinemascope on Sat, 2007-01-27 16:45. :: Cinemascope 5
Movie title:
The Fountain
Starring:
Hugh Jackman, Racehl Weisz, Ellen Burstyn
Directed by:
Darren Aronofsky
Written by:
Darren Aronofsky
Genre:
Drama/Romance/Sci-Fi
Year:
2007
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Runtime:
1 hour 36 minutes
Imdb:
Rating:
Synopsis
In the present, oncologist Tommy Creo races to find a cure for the brain tumour that is killing his wife Izzi. She gives him a book, that tells the story of a search by a Spanish conquistador, Tomas, for the legendary Mayan Tree of Life. Five hundred years into the future, Tom travels in a ecospheric spaceship (a bubble) with the Tree of Life, travelling toward a distant nebula that is said to give eternal life.
In the present, oncologist Tommy Creo races to find a cure for the brain tumour that is killing his wife Izzi. She gives him a book, that tells the story of a search by a Spanish conquistador, Tomas, for the legendary Mayan Tree of Life. Five hundred years into the future, Tom travels in a ecospheric spaceship (a bubble) with the Tree of Life, travelling toward a distant nebula that is said to give eternal life.
Review
You have to admire Aronofsky for his persistence: when his $75 million version of The Fountain, set to star Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, fell apart three years ago, he went back to the drawing board, recast the movie with Jackman and his fiancee Weisz, and made the whole thing for $35 million instead. You've also got to admire his vision and ambition: this is a movie that tackles death, grief, and the possibilities of eternal life over a timescale of 3,000 years - or does it? All the movie's publicity says The Fountain is made up of three stories, but it made more sense to me as just one - in the present, Tommy struggles to come to terms with Izzi's imminent death: the Mayan sequences are illustrated scenes from her book which she gives him to finish, while the sequences in 'the future' are actually a sort of manifestation of Tommy's grief. Regardless of how you interpret The Fountain, it's easy to see this as pompous, pretentious stuff, but the story in the present is very moving, the performances from Jackman and Weisz are commendably committed and strong, and some of the future sequences are dazzling, if baffling. The Fountain is a visually stunning, bewildering, overly-simplistic but never boring movie, and here's a guarantee: for all it's many flaws, you won't see anything else like it.
You have to admire Aronofsky for his persistence: when his $75 million version of The Fountain, set to star Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, fell apart three years ago, he went back to the drawing board, recast the movie with Jackman and his fiancee Weisz, and made the whole thing for $35 million instead. You've also got to admire his vision and ambition: this is a movie that tackles death, grief, and the possibilities of eternal life over a timescale of 3,000 years - or does it? All the movie's publicity says The Fountain is made up of three stories, but it made more sense to me as just one - in the present, Tommy struggles to come to terms with Izzi's imminent death: the Mayan sequences are illustrated scenes from her book which she gives him to finish, while the sequences in 'the future' are actually a sort of manifestation of Tommy's grief. Regardless of how you interpret The Fountain, it's easy to see this as pompous, pretentious stuff, but the story in the present is very moving, the performances from Jackman and Weisz are commendably committed and strong, and some of the future sequences are dazzling, if baffling. The Fountain is a visually stunning, bewildering, overly-simplistic but never boring movie, and here's a guarantee: for all it's many flaws, you won't see anything else like it.
