Eternity Indeed

Rating: 3/10 (17 May 2007)

The FountainI'm not even really sure I could accurately tell you what this film was about. There was probably all sorts of symbolism in it that went over my head, and while I'm not adverse to symbolism, many movies use it in quiet beautiful and powerful ways, when it's used sorandomly, and seemingly without rhyme or reason as the fountain did, the audience is lost and therefore the movie loses any potential it had to really effect it's viewers. I quickly became bored and confused by this movie. The main idea behind the film is a quest for immortality and trying to find eternal life, which if I'm not mistaken, in the end we realize is never truly possible.
Hugh Jackman's performance was elevated only by the skill at which this films' costume team pulled off some terrific looking outfits. I think he portrayed the part of a hopeless husband rather well; his crying was usually very believable, but the creepy bald guy and the practically mute Spaniard were dull and much too vague to connect with.
While I love Rachel Weisz in many of her films, Constant Gardener is one of my favorites, I however felt that her sickly, present-day character was fake and annoying, but the way she pulled off the Queen of Spain was quite beautiful. Well-spoken and emotionless, much as you would expect a queen to be. While roles such as these I am sure are a dream for any actor it seemed to me that they clearly focused more on one character than another and left us wanting more from their performances all around.
The Fountain just confused me, I feel that the purpose of film, in general, is to connect with the audience, and when filmmakers use their stage only to express their inner thoughts in completely vague and emotionally vacant ways, the audience feels abandoned and that's exactly how I felt. At the end of this film I was confused and bored, no connection was made.
However, this film did achieve one common goal of film. It made me thinkjust harder than I would like. It raised questions of immortality and eternal life, a common quest of human beings since the dawn of time. It questioned life and death and made me think about them more than I normally would. While the special effects were brilliant, particularly at the end, the substance wasn't there to back it up. Movie history can not be made on special effects alone.
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