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44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unique & Visionary, 5 Jun 2007
There were as many detractors as those appluading this film on it's release, but you can't please everyone. This film is cut from an entirely different cloth than most of the Hollywood dross out there these days, and shows a certain level of forward thinking from Warners to stick by Aronofsky and his vision for the film. What we get is a tight, well acted piece of filmaking which literally glows and radiates an intense passion throughout the 90min screentime. It may be too open ended for most cineplex viewers, requiring a leap of imagination to absorb the tryptich of narrative as the film jumps between 3 timelines: Past, Present, Future, but for those of us prepared to invest something into the experience( and leave all that 21st century cynicism/ negativity at the door) you'll be rewarded with a beautiful, emotive, intelligent film that leaves you wanting more.
Everyone will have their own take on what the film actually means, and where and when the final timeline actually takes place? but that is the beauty of this film, it makes you think, about yourself, your loved ones and our place in the universe. If only more films did this the world could be a better place.
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50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You won't see a more beautiful film all year, 9 Jun 2007
After a long wait, complete with the projects being stopped in its tracks once already, The Fountain finally reached our screens to an occasionally perplexed and/or apathetic audience on one hand, on the other to an audience that it struck an emotional chord with.
I fall into the latter, if you hadn't guessed.
This was always going to be Darren Aronofsky's difficult third movie following the mind-melting Pi and the emotional assault & battery of Requiem for a Dream, but he pulls it off with an intimate, heartbreaking story that happens to span 1000 years, only it doesn't once you think about it.
The three narrative threads (Tommy in the modern day, Tomas the Conquistador, and Tom the spaceman) may appear to jar, but they all fit into the story - not the story of the film, but the book that Tommy's dying wife Izzy is writing as her brain tumour threatens to overcome her once and for all.
The Fountain has an air of sadness that seeps from the screen: the repeated motif of Izzy asking Tommy to take a walk with her in the snow plays time and again, and takes on sadder connotations every time, while the Tommy/Tomas/Tom character(s) all face an impossible task in trying to prevent natural following it's inevitable course towards death, and how man is unable to prevent the people he loves succumbing to fate. One scene sees Tommy completely numb by bad news, walking down a street and unable to take in what's going on around him (passers-by, traffic, construction works) and we don't hear a thing until he's almost hit by a car.
As always, Aronofsky can create stunning images on screen, and as always accompanied by Clint Mansell's intimate, stripped-back score that enhances the events and the feeling of loss that is preparing to come to the fore upon all three variations of Hugh Jackman's lead character. Indeed, even when he succeeds, it ends up hurting him as he just prolonged the inevitable until it could hurt him once more.
It may not be a Friday night popcorn movie by any means, but it is a one of the finest pieces of filmmaking of recent years, and more proof that Darren Aronofsky is an underrated director that is capable of creating cinematic genius out of the meanest of circumstances, and is a film that you should see.
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39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
To love forever, 4 April 2007
This review is from: The Fountain [Blu-ray] [2006] (Blu-ray)
Darren Aronofsky has never made movies that were easy viewing. Examples? Just watch "Pi" and "Requiem For a Dream," and you'll see why this underrated director has made one of the most astounding sci-fi movies in ages.
"The Fountain" is basically a sprawling tale that is half "real," half outside the mind -- love, immortality, death, grief and a tangled plotline that may take a few viewings to get right, but is exquisite in its simplicity. Not satisfied with depth, Aronofsky also makes it an absolutely stunning visual experience.
Research oncologist Tommy (Hugh Jackman) is trying to find a cancer cure by animal testing, so he can save the life of his dying wife Izzie (Rachel Weisz), including an unsanctioned test from a mysterious tree. As she hopes for a cure, Izzie has been writing a book about a Spanish conquistador who is seeking the immortality-granting Tree of Life.
As we see in other flashbacks, that conquistador is a version of Tommy (and Izzy as Queen Isabella). And far in the future, Tommy still struggles with his wife's loss, as he travels to a distant nebula to revive the tree. But as he finally gives in to his wife's last wish, he becomes enmeshed in a mysterious rebirth that stretches through the ages.
"The Fountain" got a royal whupping from critics, and was even booed by test audiences, who presumably couldn't understand the three storylines -- or rather, one non-linear storyline, in which the lines between reality and imagination are blurred. Perhaps all of it is true, or perhaps Tommy's mind is creating the 1500 and 2500 scenarios to help him cope.
As befits a movie that tackles so many deep themes, Aronofsky weaves mythology, creation beliefs, religion and the fear of death together, and binds it together with the universal theme -- love that even death can't overcome. The dialogue tends to be more spare than the story, rather than loading it down with unnecessary ponderings.
And he does it beautifully and surreally. The whole movie is tinged in gold -- gold light, gold costumes, gold Tree of Life, gold nebula, gold deserts. The camerawork is filmed poetry: there are sweet moments like planting a seed in a grave, the Tree lit by the sun, and the sight of Tommy inside the nebula. The most exquisite moment comes when Tommy kneels before Izzy, under the Tree, with drops of golden light falling around them.
This is undoubtedly Jackman's best movie, making us feel Tom's love and sorrow for Izzy ("There's no hope for us here. There is only death"), and the lifelong struggle against death. Your heart really breaks for him. Weisz is sweet and wilting as Izzy, and the chemistry between the two leads makes their time-busting love seem entirely reasonable.
Aronofsky has made a story that is pure art, exquisite in theme, and while you might have to watch "Fountain" a few times to really "get it," but you won't regret the experience. Even if you don't like it, in an era of bland popcorn movies, its ambition is worth praising.
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