Erratic and pseudo-intellectual effort by a great director who needs to tone down the symbolism

Rating: 4/10 (27 August 2008)

Darren Aronofsky is one of the most original and talented directors of his generation. I'm saying that even though I didn't like his first movie "Pi" very much. I could appreciate the visual aesthetics, but the story was just too heavy headed for me to enjoy. The follow-up "Requiem For A Dream", however, left me very impressed. It's one of the most shocking movies I ever saw and got me even more interested in this inspired director.
Unfortunately, "The Fountain", penned and directed by Aronofsky, is a bit of a misfire. By now the director has enough loyal fans who will argue passionately that this is a great movie with a lot of depth, but the truth is that there is very little to enjoy here, if you're not forcing a message into it. Aronofsky seems to arbitrarily connect three story lines in "The Fountain". There's no proper dramaturgy, everything stays vague, too vague to keep the viewer interested. Aronofsky tries hard to emulate the symbolism of Kubrick, but he fails horribly. Everything is flamboyant: the colors, the acting (with the characters always squeezing out a theatralic tear just as the dialog is supposed to be at its most dramatic), even the music by Clint Mansell, who did such an amazing job for "Requiem", but flushes this movie with his overly bombastic score.
In the end "The Fountain" is a big, empty and boring mess. Aronofsky is daring and pushing, but he needs to tone down the symbolism in his movies, become less self-indulgent and more straight forward. We'll see what the future brings. Hopefully it's not a meditating bald guy that eats a tree in space.