The Fountain

Rating: 8/10 (24 June 2007)

This is Darren Aronofsky's long-delayed film after the remarkable masterpiece "Requiem For A Dream". Two main actors and three paralleled stories. In the actual world he was a doctor and she was his beloved wife who had suffered from brain cancer, he tried everything to save her but she just was not able to wait. He finished her last will to complete her unfinished novel.
In his wife's unfinished novel, She was the ancient Queen of Spain and he was her most loyal fighter, he was assigned to find the immortal tree for her but finished by becoming the green grass and melting into the ground around the tree.
In another unknown space and time, he was an abbe with piety, he accompanied with the immortal tree and they were in a flying bubble which aimed to the dying star to pursue immortality. And in the end the tree diminished while he realized the insight of eternity.
The storyline seems simple but difficult to have apperception of the symbolic and metaphorical notion especially for the third story. It's a way too big proposition, it's nearly beyond the essence of life and death, it questions the whole universe of entity. This film needs to be watched several times and we will gain different comprehension each time. I will watch it again and to feel the distinctness in the future.
The visual effect is astonishing in spite of the budget shrink, and I'm very impressed to wise up that Darren did not use CG technology for the film, I have no idea how he made it, and it's totally beyond my thought.
Probably a lot of people think this film is obscure and difficult to perceive, I do adore this feeling, we have to think or even use imagination upon problems like that and it is in urgent need for cinephiles.
I am deeply touched by Hugh Jackman's acting in this film, so heartbreaking and emotional, I think his wife is the happiest person in the world because she owns a purest, sincerest love from him. It's such a pity that Hugh's marvelous performance is largely overlooked last year just because this is a Sci-Fi movie. Rachel Weisz emanates a peculiar temperament in her roles, She is amazing too.
I can never forget the mark of the ring mixed by blood and ink around the doctor's finger, it proves that even we, human beings are insignificant dust of the universe we can still create eternity of our own.