Best Film of the Decade

Rating: 10/10 (16 February 2010)

Death is a subject that most people do not feel comfortable discussing and probably never will. That is why when a film that touches on death so intimately is released that is something special.
Darren Aronofsky initially came up with the idea for this film when reading about a prisoner who was in the prison of a small Latin American town. A volcano erupted and killed everyone in the village but the one prisoner in the new prison. Then the idea of being the last man alive became the main crux of the script. Of course when writing about immortality, the issue of death comes up instantly, and Aronofsky incorporated that into the story. The obsession we as a culture have about remaining eternally young and dismissing death in its entirety is a major part of the tragedy of The Fountain. That while we care for our loved ones we are never really spiritually there for them when the time comes.
The story begins at the foot of a giant temple in 1500's Spain. Tomas is one of three men remaining on a journey that started with the search of the fabled Tree of Life. The natives come out with spears and our three conquistadors have realized they are in a trap. The other two men are killed instantly, but Tomas fights like a caged animal and eventually is knocked down and carried by the mob to the steps. At their beckoning Tomas climbs the pyramid and once at the top sees a glimmer of what so many lives have been lost for: the Tree of Life. However the tree is not unguarded and Lord of Xibalba is there with his sword of flame to protect the gift of First Father. Tomas engages him and is stabbed, the Lord goes for the death strike and with the sounds of Tomas's scream we are transported to the year 2500.
Tom Creo is suspended in a bubble colliding through space at a rate of speed one cannot even imagine. Tom shakes off the dream that frightened him so and moves to the tree encapsuled in the bubble. He kneels close to it and whispers, "Through that last dark cloud is a dying star. And soon enough, Xibalbia will die. And when it explodes, it will be reborn. You will bloom...and I will live." A figure appears out of the dark of the screen and it is a woman standing outside of Tom's vision. "Take a walk with me," she coos but Tom shakes his head, "I have too much work." She prods again, "It's the first snow, we always..." her voice softens but Tom can still not go. We don't know what work he is referring to as he is the only man alive with foreseeably nothing around. And then again with an utterance we are transported back to the year 2005. Tommy is sitting at his desk going over research and waiting on the word to go to surgery. Tommy is a neurosurgeon and his wife Izzy has a brain tumor that is terminal.
I cannot give enough credit to Hugh Jackman who plays all three characters in The Fountain and also delivered another captivating performance that year in The Prestige. Nothing emotionally in this film was handcuffed by a fake display of anguish, Jackman delivered it all, from the soul. Could you imagine how this line, "Death is a disease, it's like any other. And there's a cure. A cure - and I will find it." could have been butchered in lesser hands? Rachel Weisz really makes for compelling viewing as the cancer-stricken wife of Tommy. Forced to come to terms with death on her own Izzy is the heart of The Fountain and the foil for Tommy, who refuses to accept her ailment and races to find a cure. Even at the risk of his own sanity.
Perhaps what is most amazing about The Fountain is that 98% of the film was done without CGI. All of the space seen around Tom are micro-sized photographs of chemical reactions. The cinematography is the hands-down best I have seen in film ever. Matthew Libatique (who has been Aronofsky's cinematographer since Pi) reigns in your interest and keeps it while never resorting to distracting the audience with cheap parlor tricks.
The Fountain arrests the mind, breaks the heart and is the best film of the decade.