I Was Waiting For This Movie For A Year...

Rating: 3/10 (23 November 2006)

I loved Aronofsky's prior movies. "Requiem" is a work of demented genius. And the trailer for "Fountain" excited me no end.
I just saw this movie this evening.
Oh. My. God.
No, that's not a GOOD "Oh, My God." The first movie I ever saw at the cinema was "2001"...my uncle, for soem demented reason, took me to see it when I was 4. I have vague recollections of the Stargate, but wouldn't really fall in love with it for another decade.
I champion "A.I.", "Phase IV", "Silent Running", "Solaris", and many more.
But I draw the line at "The Fountain." I KNOW what Aronofsky's trying to say. I would LOVE to read his original script, and I'm dying to know what the big set-pieces were that were cut after the big "Brad Pitt Turnaround Budget Slash".
But, honestly: this film has high ambitions, and fails spectacularly on every single level. I *understand* what Aronofky's trying to say, and because I understand, I can only shake my head in bewilderment wondering how he managed to screw his own story so badly. The screenplay could have been fixed in less than a week: as it stands, it's patronising (not pretentious) and fuzzy.
I was less than impressed with the FX (oh, big deal: a smattering of FX in "2001" were done the same way...not an excuse to consistency bludgeon is with them as a theme-poem); I hated Rachel Weisz (and I was starting to like her in other movies); and it was a MASSIVE mistake using Kronos again for music.
I came out of the cinema to something I've never encountered before: an angry audience. We all knew we'd been duped. It wasn't saying anything special. And, I can only wonder at Aronofsky's comment that he wrote it after coming out "The Matrix". Coming out of "Dark City", I could understand...