Extraordinary film

Rating: 10/10 (4 September 2006)

I got into a screening by chance a few weeks ago to see a film called The Fountain up here in New York. I was about to see another film while a young woman approach my wife and I about a free screening while I was about to purchase my tickets. Now I have heard that special screenings are common and they happen at random, so we took her up on her offer right away and followed her inside the theater to a screening room. Now considering that the film was free, we were going to take it in stride that it might not be any good and just go along for the experience. Long and behold, the movie started and we were treated to one of the most intelligent and emotional films we have ever seen. Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman play eternal lovers who are destine to live in tragedy though their several incarnations over time (Past, Present and Future). Thou these experiences, they are forced to look at the meaning of life and death and if there is a way to prolong their love thou it all. The running theme in the film is about acceptance, wheatear it's trying to live your life to the fullest or to die with dignity and that is more represented in the present day time line of the film where Huge's character is trying to save his wife (Rachel's character) from an inoperable brain tumor. This segment of the film is where the film's emotional bread and butter come from and in my opinion the best part of the whole movie. There is a realistic chemistry between Hugh and Rachel and it carries the far reaching premise of the film with such emotional gravity that you are able to feel their love for each other. Rachel Weisz has always been one of my favorite actors and here she delivers her best performance to date with such passion and such grace that you can literally feel her inside of your heart. She makes her character a real three dimensional person, with real flaws, real fears and real bravery. In any lesser actress's hands, Weisz's role would have been a sad stereotype of a dying woman who is brave in the face of death, in Weisz's powerful hands however, she makes her human and that in my opinion is even more heroic and realistic. Hugh Jackman is extraordinary as well and this performance will prove to everyone that he's among the best actors we have around. In any other lesser actor's hands, Jackman's role would have been the stereotypical man on a mission to save his wife but in Jackman's hands, he give an emotional complex performance of a man who is trying to come to grips with his own fears of loss while watching his wife slowly comes to grips with her own mortality. The climax of the film is set on some kind of spiritual plain where all the stories of the characters come together to give an impression of ever lasting life and renewal.
To make a long review short, it's a great film that my wife and I were completely taken by surprise with and it really had us talking once it was over.