Reviews

The Fountain

Love - Death - Art - could be three words to describe Darren Aronofsky's latest movie 'The Fountain'. However that would be over simplifying and over rating this mystic romance. Darren Aronofsky has been a filmmaker I've defended when others called his work pseudo art-house or pretentious. On this go around these complaints would be hard to deflect.

At its high points 'The Fountain' is a somber story about fighting to keep the person you love. A story that spans over three different timelines dealing with the quest for eternal life. At its worst you have Hugh Jackman floating around space in the lotus position. The set for the space scenes are so bad they would look more at home in a live theater production… a high school production.

I'm just going to piss and moan to get it out of my system. I don't care for El Topo or any movie that thinks it's so full of mysticism and religious enlightenment. Whenever I see a movie that tries so hard to be spiritual I imagine the director jacking off while kissing his reflection in the mirror. Aronofsky must have been on one hell of a herbal tea bender to crank this one out.

The more time I have to reflect on 'The Fountain' the more I realize the 'past' and 'present' portions of the movie worked. The more I think about Jackman floating around space the more I want to teabag him. Imagine being locked in a deadhead shop while some burnt-out, middle-aged hippie on her 400th acid trip explains the origins of the universe. I'd rather watch 'The Wizard of Oz' while listening to Dark Side of the Moon over watching Wolverine grow his third eye. On top of not being a fan of tanscendental nonsense, the 'future' scenes just look bad. Hugh Jackman looks like he opened his heart chakra in the 1981 animated flick 'Heavy Metal'. Ugh! I can't stress how much I dislike the 'future' portion of this movie. Fuck.

That being said, the sets for the 'past' segment are gorgeous and there are elements in the sets to tie all three segments together. The story from the 'present' segment was the most captivating and the only to make me feel anything for the characters. 'The Fountain' could have achieved it's goal with getting all preachy but I guess that was the desired effect. Really a shame because I hoped to love 'The Fountain' as much as I love 'Pi' and 'Requiem for a Dream'. I guess they can't all be winners.

Good for a rental but that's about as high of a recommendation as I can give.
7/10

'The Fountain' can be found at Wild and Woolly video

Andy

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