Esoteric stinker filled with dullards

Rating: 2/10 (10 March 2008)

Dull, boring, overproduced twaddle starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, the wife of director Darren Arnofsky. Originally, Brad Pitt was slated to star, but he bailed. Perhaps he realized he'd signed up for a stinker. I disliked Arnofsky's "Pi" and admired his "Requiem for a Dream", so I'm neither here nor there about his output. In a nutshell, a scientist/doctor (Jackman) is falling apart because his wife (who has written a manuscript called "The Fountain") is dying. His experiments on animals appear to be yielding results that may help her. At the same time, Jackman is a warrior in another time period fighting an unspecified enemy. Metaphors and parallel emotional journeys float about to confuse us and put us to sleep. There is another aspect of the film that reminded me of the strange, fascinating, superior sci-fi flick of old, "The Little Prince" -- Jackman hangs out on a floating asteroid talking to a tree and debating the meaning of his existence. "The Fountain" has a budget up the kazoo and is a handsomely mounted production. Performances are of the ultra-important, "deeply meaningful" tenor, and the pacing would bore a snail. I had no idea what was really going on and I don't care to be informed. The film is a mish-mash of long gestating ideas and ambitions that never involve the viewer or make you care. Jackman's character is so narcissistic and self-righteous you just want him to die a horrible death; Weisz is a bed-ridden dullard worthy of no less. I don't subscribe to Arnofsky's school of esoteric, existentialist vapidity. I like my movies accessible.