Not for everyone

Rating: Null/10 (16 February 2014)

"The Fountain" is indeed a very difficult movie to review. It's one of those kind of movies that doesn't explain much of what is happening, and lets the viewer come up with its own explanations.
For me, the balance is crucial in such movies. It doesn't want you to tell too much, but if it doesn't tell enough, it might end up being too hard to follow or incomplete. As much as I love movies that challenge the viewer, I always felt that "The Fountain" is too demanding for it's own good and ends up explaining too little. It goes overboard with cultural and religious symbolism, so much that I felt left out because I simply don't know what it is referring to. I admit that I have little knowledge about these things, but despite that, halfway through the movie I thought it'll be one of my all-time favorites. After all, the build-up is promising, the scenery and visuals are beautiful and the music is fantastic. It sets the right mood.
But when the movies goes about to resolve things it becomes very hard to understand why its suddenly happening that way. It felt like an absurd twist, one that could be argued to be either brilliant or lame. I tend to lean more towards the latter.
It's a movie that probably anyone will experience differently, and if that was Aronofskys goal - then he obviously achieved it. I can imagine that someone who likes symbolism or has enough knowledge about this movies thematic will find much joy in it. But the average viewer might get the impression that it doesn't give him enough to work with in order to tell a complete story.