Visually astounding, but far too flawed to be looked at as anything more

Rating: 6/10 (19 May 2007)

After seeing the brilliance he delivered in Requiem for a Dream last summer, I was up for anything Darren Aronofsky had to offer. I never had a chance to view his first film, Pi, but I did want to make a point of seeing The Fountain as soon as I could. And despite the heavily negative reviews I read, I figured it had to be somewhat worthwhile.
So as anyone who has read anything on this film can tell you, The Fountain cycles through a thousand year cycle of a man named Tom (Hugh Jackman), and the love of his life, Isabel (Rachel Weisz), and his search for everlasting life. In 1500, he is a Spanish conquistador, searching for a tree that will keep his queen alive forever. In 2000, he is a lab scientist trying to find a cure for his ailing wife. In 2500, he is a cosmonaut, traveling through space with a tree, haunted by old memories.
While the film is undeniably unique and original, it often played itself out to look like a movie that was originally envisioned to be so much grander. It really does feel like Aronofsky made a compromise and took out the real lavishness of the film, and just left the bare bones. Not that the powerful and deep seated core of the movie is not there, it just feels like that is it, and nothing more.
While this would not usually sound like a bad thing, it proves to be one here. Whole sequences go on for minutes at a time, and they just point to something that is either not there, or not worthy of retrieving. Every moment in the film is interconnected (hence why some are overplayed quite annoyingly), but every moment does not feel like it is needed. It just turns boring really quickly, and leads to a lot of eye-rolling as the movie barrels on. And for a movie that is just over ninety minutes, that just does not work. While editing probably would not have solved this, more coherency in these redundant sequences probably would have helped.
And while the film is fairly easy to follow at first (despite the jumpiness between time periods and its numerous allusions to everything from the bible to medieval times), it completely turns itself on its own head during its denouement. I expected my mind to get screwed with, but it just did not seem to make a whole total whack of sense the way Aronofsky did it. It seemed more like he wanted to play out every idea he has, and just throw it at the audience all at once and yell "Gotcha!" My mind hurts even now, just attempting to comprehend the ultimate point of The Fountain. Was it all an exercise to toy with me, or did Aronofsky genuinely believe he delivered the film he set out to originally? If the whole film did anything for me, it is the fact that I am now curious to see what the original vision was, and if it was just as buggy as this one.
What the film also loses in a lot of cases is emotion from the cast. The entire supporting cast looks like they are either watching a train wreck or just seem completely confused at why they are even there throughout the entirety of the film. None of them are particularly notable, and most are seen for fleeting minutes, if at all (and the majority are only used in the events that take place in 2000).
Jackman seems like he is really trying, but only makes it work half the time. You can see the pain in his face and in his actions, but when brilliant ideas that make the film progress occur, he just does not seem too phased by what has hit him. He looks just like the script reader told him that something big just happened, and he just runs along and goes with the flow. He is lifeless for the majority of the film, and when his poignant moments come, you stare in agony just wishing that he was not so stiff delivering it. Weisz fares even worse. Despite being the key to the entire production, she goes totally underused. I never got a real sense of why Jackman was moved to keep her alive in any of the scenarios, and got even less a sense as to what she brought to the film besides being the reason for the search. She is good for what she does, but her character does not feel complete. I can only hope this too, was something that got cut.
The film succeeds however, in astonishingly detailed style, in its set design and visual effects. They are just totally awe-inspiring, and so totally unique. It is quite the trip, and it never lets up in any case. The colours used are just totally out of this world. Every single visual spec is more than a treat for the audience. It guides them through this totally flawed movie, and is visually appetizing. If I continued watching for any reason (or recommended this to anyone), it was because of just how much effort was obviously used in bringing Aronofsky's vision to life. He clearly is very vivid and imaginative, and his film benefits as a result. It all feels so fluid and so real, even at its most overt-the-top moments. It really breathes life into how biblically and epically laden the film is, and suggests just how much greater it could have been if it was shown in its originally conceived form.
Although it is heavily flawed, The Fountain works as a beautiful case of visual direction. Aronofsky clearly was far too ambitious with this third project of his. If he dug a little deeper into his original screenplay, I think he could have made this compromise a whole lot more watchable than it is.
6.5/10.