THE FOUNTAIN

starring: hugh jackman, rachel weisz, ellen burstyn...
director: darren aronofsky
writer: darren aronofsky


date: 09/17/06
reviewer: Suj
rating: 10

A swirling epic, a burgeoning take on romanticism, and a fine look into devotion is the essential make-up of Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain. It’s simply too early to call this film a masterpiece, ah fuck it, this movie is a masterpiece because of it’s sheer elegant beauty in both its visual appearance and storytelling. It’s a human science-fiction story told it such a heart-breaking manner and showcased on a pedestal of visual perfection that you can’t bare not fall to the floor, ultimately touched by what you’ve just witnessed and asking yourself if this kind of love can exist, if it can live and go on forever.

The Fountain isn’t for everyone. There will be some, perhaps many that will simply not understand the movie. Though, stripped of everything, Darren Aronofsky’s romantic epic is really quite simple. It’s about a woman who is dying and she’s scared about dying, and handles this fear by writing a book. It’s about man who loves this woman, searching desperately to find a cure to save this woman, this woman who means everything to him. Ultimate love is what this movie truly is about. Love in all its long stem roses, boxes of chocolates, hugs, kisses, long embraces, and the overwhelming thought, notion, that you’ve found someone in this big world of ours that you cannot bare to live without.

The film is told through three different time periods. It begins in the 1500s where we meet a Spanish Conquistador who’s fighting his way through Mayan warriors. This whole portion of the film isn’t real. It’s fiction. It’s material that encompasses the book that the dying Izzy is writing for her husband, Tommy. It’s a book that she will give to him unfinished, a book he is supposed to write the ending for, a book that will transform him and his world completely. The characters within the material are obviously meant to be them. There lies lingering notions of their real relationship that parallel the situations within the fictional material of the book. You have, the Conquistador Tomas who is driven, but ultimately endless in his labour to push past the limits in order to save the woman he loves. In the real world, you have, Tommy who is a medical researcher, working on a cancer cure, determined to beat Izzy’s cancer to its conclusion, determined to stop it cold before it can take her. The more driven Tommy becomes, the more desperate the quest of Tomas becomes.

Then there is the whole outer space portion of the film. It’s all visually stunning and the most challenging material of the film. It’s as if you are looking at a painting, staring at its beauty, trying to understand its meaning, deciphering its secrets. That, is what this whole portion of the movie is, there is little to no dialogue, just images that we have to take in. Whatever Tommy calls himself at this point, he is alone, so he has no real need for any name. It’s just him, this strange and beautiful tree, and the big cold empty mere inches away on the outside of this bubble. All this space stuff is about sacrifice, keeping a promise. It's about loving someone enough to never give up on them.

Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz deserve some sort of awe-inspiring award because both of their performances here are just fucking golden. It’s startling really; Jackman’s physical transformation is glorious and fits perfectly into the story. Tommy is affected not only by Izzy’s death, but also with the task she has left him, and everything he does is a response to that. Weisz’ performance is equally startling, heartbreaking even. She’s struggling to make her peace with the idea of dying, the book she is writing is part of that, the way she reaches out to Tommy is part of that. And ultimately, when she finally achieves this peace, she’s luminous. Both Jackman and Weisz portray this epic love, beautifully realized that you begin to feel and emote to what you are witnessing.

The thing that stands out the most about Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain is its ability to merge its visuals with its story and unveil it in such away that it literally is inspiring, both on an emotional level but too on filmmaking standpoint. You see, most movies today carry with them massive special effects for the sake of having eye candy, to wet the mouths of those watching, but when it comes down to it those movies often provide no substance at all. Here, with The Fountain, Aronofsky is able to throw down his filmmaking prowess and tell a story about humanity and redemption so beautiful and emotional and too display it on a canvas of sights and sounds that leave you in wonder. Aronofsky’s decision to go against the standard works of any random special effects house and evoke the talents of Peter Parks’ microphotography to represent star fields, nebulas, and the ever enthralling appearance of infinite space is a testament to Aronofsky talent to do something visually different. This film deserves to be applauded.

At the end of the day, if you expect to have this movie completely spoon-fed to you, you may leave the theater disappointed, though the answers are all there. There will be many who watch this movie and use the term “weird” to describe it, but my counter to this assumption would be to say you weren’t really paying attention. Ultimately, the film is about asking the fundamental life question we all one time or another have asked ourselves: What happens to us when we die? Aronofsky tries to give us the answer, an idea of what can happen. Izzy's death leads to another life, just as Tommy's ultimate fate is no ending at all. It’s unspoken beauty in the final moments of the film, allowing us to speculate and interpret what it is to live, die, and love. It’s a triumphant film.

AS SEEN AT THE 2006 TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL