A great film from Aronofsky and under-estimated

Rating: 9/10 (15 October 2011)

I have very much liked all of what I've seen of Aronofsky, and judging from the amount of hate I had seen for The Fountain I was not expecting to like it. But while I think it could have been a tad longer, I thought the film was fantastic and my third favourite Aronofsky after The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream.
I also think The Fountain is under-estimated, it is a perplexing movie I agree but for me that was what drew me to this film in the first place. I find 2001 and Tree of Life perplexing movies, and like The Fountain they are not movies for everybody but I think important films. The pace is slow, but I was too taken in by the quality of the visuals, music, direction and acting to be bored by any of it.
Visually, The Fountain is one of the visually stunning films I have seen in a long time, and I have seen a lot of visually amazing movies such as any of Kubrick, Kurasawa, Fellini or Malick's resumes. The cinematography is outstanding and the colours and effects are rich. The music is of such beautiful and haunting quality, Aronofsky's directing shows ambition and heart and the dialogue is thought provoking.
As for the story, of all of Aronofsky's movies, The Fountain is perhaps his most philosophical and profound. There will be some people who will finish the movie trying to figure out what it all means, others like me will be rewarded by its effective scenes and ambitious themes. Scenes such as Jackman trying to find a cure for his wife's cancer, saving the Spanish queen from destruction by searching for the Fountain of Youth and sitting like Buddha beneath his cosmic tree really stand out, and the film does much with the ambitious and difficult-to-define themes of life, death, love and immortality.
The performances are excellent, with both Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz giving some of their best work of their careers here. All in all, a great film. 9/10 Bethany Cox