96 minutes of mental muscle ache

Rating: 3/10 (25 May 2007)

We tend to be twice as hard on those we love, simply because we care. With "Pi" and "Requiem for a Dream", Darren Aronofsky has raised the bar of our affection to high heaven. But with the affection comes the attention, and with the attention comes the scrutiny. "The Fountain" doesn't pass the test. By comparison with his early works, this feels like a polished, feature-length yoga class, but without the uplifting effects of fitness or relaxation. Drawing on a crude mixture of biblical, pagan and new age imagery, Aronofsky gets triple side-tracked in his debut as sole screenwriter. Tom, an obsessed neurosurgeon (Hugh Jackman), and his monkish alter ego set out in pursuit of the tree of life. In the meantime, Tom's lovely wife Izzi (Rachel Weisz, aka Mrs Aronofsky) is busy penning "The Fountain", the book of *her* life that will reveal all the mysteries. Quite frankly, we don't give a rat's ass at this point. To muck things up yet a little more, the book features Tom as Spanish Conquistador Tomas, and Izzi as none other than Queen Isabel of Spain. My take is that Aronofsky was so high on surrogate hormones, overflowing with affection for his pregnant wife, that he simply lost it. Rumor has it that Rachel Weisz went into labor as she was watching the final cut and gave birth while the closing credits were still flickering. Good for her.