Darren Aronofsky’s movie The Fountain is sure to split it’s audience in many directions. Some will understand the basics but not really want anything to do with it. Some will wonder just what they were watching, and then some people, like myself will absolutely adore this film.
The Fountain proves that even in Hollywood you can find a way to create a little bit of beauty. Every shot is thought out. You can see it in the lighting, the design and the mostly the eyes of the two man actors. Hugh Jackman has his most diverse and demanding role and he pulls it off wonderfully. Rachel Weisz is just right and it’s easy to see that Aronofsky camera never lets his wife look dull even on her deathbed. The three timelines all play wonderfully off each other and I can’t wait to have a chance to study the lines from this movie. I am pretty sure certain figures from each timeline got intermingled throughout and sometimes even called each other by wrong period names. The Fountain’s futuristic set is really the best thing a big screen could be used for. A sole floating bubble in the vastness of space and a singular color of yellow. It is a desert photographer’s dream. A beautiful dream.
In the end The fountain’s story plays off the old story of life and death and all the questions that follow us on that road, and it may veer to closely into a want or desire for meaning for the cynics out in movieland. I’m sure I’ll be dissapointed when Ihear the negativity that will surround this film. Its downfall in the world of the moviegoer will be it’s attempt to hit an idea over the head with a mallet and not to let up until the credits roll. If you can see into the hammer then you will enjoy it’s exploration. And if you only see the hammer, then you may as well leave the theatre. The fountain is about creation. About creating and ending, about beauty and saddness, and gains and losses. It is about Hope, and Despair, light and dark, and most importantly life and death.
In the end as it still sinks in and I understand this film will be too slow, too convulted for most movie patrons, all I can think about is how movies need more films like this. Honest. Serene. Beautiful. Basically Human.
~A plus plus plus~