two stars out of four

Rating: 5/10 (12 February 2008)

Pi was great. Requiem was really good and I'll never know if it's better than that because it would take a lot to make me sit down and watch it again. And I have a feeling it's the kind of movie you only need to see once anyways. The Fountain was an ambitious attempt at a modern-day 2001, but without the cohesiveness and style to hold it all together.
A lot of the visuals in The Fountain come off as silly and distract from the overall enjoyment of the film. The flow and pacing of the film was confused in that it felt more like a three hour movie when really it was closer to 90 minutes. This is most likely because it felt like a series of ideas, some decent and some haphazard, strung together over rich visuals. The acting is average at best, which is saying a lot since neither Jackman or Weisz have much room to explore their characters.
For a more cohesive style and visuals that are much closer to breathtaking (which Aronofsky thrived for here but generally failed), then I'd recommend 'Sunshine', another modern day film that works along similar lines as 2001 but succeeds more as an action film than as a Zen parable. Aronofsky is talented and has achieved some stunning work, but I'm not going to like this movie on that fact alone. He doesn't demonstrate his qualities as a filmmaker with this movie so much as reveal his weaknesses. I was underwhelmed.