The Fountain fills you with life and emotion and doesn't leave you apathetic in your seat

Rating: 10/10 (13 April 2007)

Welcome to the lucid, dreamy, drugged up world of Darren Aronofsky. If you've seen Requiem for a Dream and/or Pi, welcome back. Aronofsky's world is a creepy place to be in if you're not in the right mood, so my first advice would be to just let go. The Fountain is told in a non-linear, rarely coherent manner. Like Requiem, it jumps from sequence to sequence like a rushed up video clip, shows you the lowest depths of human nature – but unlike its predecessor, it also has an upside in tempo, in the final, somewhat optimistic message, and in general feel.
Without getting too much into details (it would just ruin the whole thing), i'll sum the plot up by saying it deals with a love story that spans over 1,000 years (the first occurring somewhere circa 1,500 a.d., the last around 2,500 a.d. and the main one told in current time). In the main arc, Hugh Jackman plays a tortured doctor seeking treatment to his ill wife's sickness (Academy Award winning actress Rachel Weisz), and finding a possible cure in the form of the mythological fountain of youth. Throughout the various plots, it is evident that our protagonist is not willing to give up his love without a vicious, courageous struggle against death and eternity. The final build up is also very satisfying, as Aronofsky makes his way toward the ending in a similar crescendo fashion with which Requiem for a Dream ended as well. Unlike the latter, The Fountain actually ends with something good to ponder about. It fills you with life and emotion and doesn't leave you apathetic in your seat. It's the greatest affect a movie can have on you. The Fountain delivers the goods.