The Fountain

There are people who will tell you that The Fountain is pretentious. They'll tell you that it's full of itself; that it thinks that it is deep and profound, but that ultimately, it has nothing interesting to say. They'll say that the visuals are stunning, yes, but that the story is weak.

Those people are right.

There are people who will tell you that the film is a profound, moving masterpiece. They will tell you that the film left them thinking for days. They will tell you that, while the film is visually masterful, it is the film's grasp of complex themes, and the intelligent way in which they are handled, that make the film one of the greatest of the year, if not of many years.

Those people are probably right, too.

There are people who love the visuals; there are people who think they look cheesy, like a PS3 ad. There are those who find the acting profoundly effective, and others who think that the actors are flying toward the rafters. There are people who think it's shallow drivel, and people who think it's complex and profound. And, yeah...they're all a little right, except the PS3 people.

The thing about The Fountain is that it's going to be a pretty divisive film, and it's not just because some people "don't get it". The best description of the film that I've read so far said that it's much closer to a poem than a film. The story is not entirely clear, and the actions as important for their symbolic natures as for their literal meanings. And, as with most poetry, it either works for you, or it doesn't. If it works, you're moved; you've connected with the author, and you're on his wavelength, affected by his ideas. If it doesn't work for you, the whole thing is laughable; it's striving for some meaning that he never attains, and the whole thing falls flat.

That's why both groups are right, I think. It's not like a standard film, that I can tell you has quality. I can tell you what I think of the film (and I will, in a moment), but I can also tell you that I have no idea if you'll agree or not. For most people, the film either works, or it falls flat. There are some who admire the technique, but find the final product inert and useless. So I can't tell you if you'll like this or not.

I can tell you a few things about it, though.

1. Don't judge this film based off of the trailers for it. Roger Ebert once explained that trailers show you the movie that the studio wished it got, not what got made. The trailers for The Fountain show you an epic film about time travel and immortality. This is pretty much not true. The film is an epic, but a personal one; it is about man's struggle to accept or cope with death. I won't say much about the time periods, but I'll say that the time travel part isn't exactly true either.
2. Many people are comparing this to 2001. Those people, surprisingly, are wrong. The film is nothing like 2001, which was a story about humanity as a whole, and their evolution. It was sci-fi in its purest form. The Fountain has no easily definable genre, and is a far more personal film than Kubrick's; in fact, it is the story of one man, not of all men.
3. Whether you like the film or not, almost everyone who sees it agrees that it is stunningly beautiful. This is a very true statement. The film is a work of art, visually speaking. The imagery throughout is magnificent, and created with slim to none CGI. The sequences in the future, in fact, are composed of microscopic organisms magnified to create a very organic feel to space. The result is unlike anything you have seen before; it is also among the most stunning films I have seen in some time. If you are considering seeing it, see it on the big screen, without fail.

If those are the facts, what about my opinion of the film?

The Fountain is one of the, if not the, best films of the year.

What I expected was a time-spanning epic about immortality. What I got instead was a deeply moving love story about a man who cannot bear to lose the woman he loves, and the lengths he will go to save her. I got a story about man's fear of death, and the way we struggle to accept that which we cannot control. I got a film about our place in nature, and the things that are truly important.

Is the film operatic with its emotions? Certainly; but it worked for me. Jackman carries the film, in a way; his portrayal of a devoted lover, no matter what the time period, gives the film a powerful emotional heft that a lesser actor could never have brought. His pain is so evident in every frame, his dedication so apparent, that it brings an impact to the film's conclusion that could not have otherwise been there.

But it's Aronofsky's film, through and through. In Requiem for a Dream, Aronofsky elevated an anti-drug tale with his style, cross-cutting and editing the film to give it a raw power, intensity, and impact that the story itself did not necessarily have. Here, though, he works his style in a different way, cutting among the three stories not for devastation, but for enlightenment. Your interpretation of the connections may vary--one of the things I love about the film is the way that it bears so many different interpretations, and carries them all well. But the message of the film, and the emotion it brings, all come from Aronofsky, who structures his film in such a way that when he starts that cross-cutting he perfected in Requiem, he shows that it can be used for a whole different effect.

Yes, the visuals are amazing, and leave a viewer (at least, this viewer) enthralled. And, yes; the story may or may not work for you. (One screening I read about ended with one pair of viewers in tears, and another standing and screaming "WHAT IN THE SHIT WAS THAT?") But if it works for you like it worked for me, you'll find yourself captivated. You'll be happy that Aronofsky finally found a true story to go with his accomplished substance. But most of all, you'll be moved to your core.

What Aronofsky accomplished with The Fountain isn't just a good film; it's a work of art, a visual poem. It's meanings are rich, it's metaphors (both verbal and visual) fascinating, and its themes timeless. But more importantly--and most successfully--it is a beautiful love story, one of the best and most mature I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. And all of that, and more, is why I loved this film.

I can't promise you'll love it. I can't even promise you'll like it. Many of you will walk out halfway through; some of you will wish you had. But, if it works for you, you'll experience exactly what film is capable of, and see something unlike much you've ever seen.