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The Fountain

I have to applaud Darren Aronofsky for the 6-year process to make The Fountain. After having his funding cut, actors drop out (Brad Pitt was originally slated to play lead) and almost everybody involved lose faith, Aronofsky persevered and pulled the project through. And like the real-life journey of the film, triumph over adversity is a central theme in this story of one man and his journey through time to recover a lost love.

However, the praise must end at that. Despite an obvious passion for the project, it is painfully clear that amid all the confusion with budget cuts, actor swapping, and script re-writes, something was lost. The film is visually stunning, with some clever uses of special effects (CG was not used due to budget constrictions), and gorgeous set pieces which complement the solitary space Hugh Jackman inhabits. Jackman is wonderful, as is the rest of the cast, including Academy Award winners Rachel Weisz and Ellen Burstyn. And the directing is stylish, blending long shots and quick cuts with relative ease.

Perhaps the storyline is simply too jagged, with too little dialogue for the audience to wrap themselves around what is really happening. What we can grasp is thin, and we’re forced to fill in too many holes ourselves, not an easy feat considering the vast possibilities presented with the theory of time travel and eternal life. Basically, Hugh Jackman plays one man in three different time periods. A Spanish Conquistador in search of a Mayan tree which gives eternal life, a modern-day doctor trying to save his wife from a deadly tumor using that same tree DNA, and a futuristic misanthrope who lives in a bubble with the now dead tree. Obviously, the three plots revolve around the tree of life, and Jackman trying to save his wife.

What is unfortunately omitted is proper back story from two of the three time periods. The film centers primarily on the modern-day period. But at random moments the film shifts to the other two time periods, which unfortunately provide much of the confusion. If the film had simply been told from one point of view, with one time period and one set of circumstances, it would have been easier to understand and probably would have gotten the message of the writing across much better.

Filmmaking is all about taking risks. And Aronofsky has proven through his prior work, most notably in the acclaimed Requiem for a Dream, that he has the passion and the conviction to take risks and think outside the box. However, The Fountain feels too rough, like Aronofsky was forced to think outside the box and simply couldn’t reel in a complete picture with both creativity and still catering to the general public. And that is a real shame, since the overall story and actors could have been a gem, and another notch in a truly gifted director’s belt. Instead, the film falls into the unfortunate category of a vivid, visionary dream which got lost amid the translation of reality.

Written by: Jason Villemez

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