Outstanding

Rating: 10/10 (17 October 2006)

I echo the kudos in other comments to the nth degree. A little trim here and there might have held a less enamored audience, but I was so drawn in that this didn't occur to me until a friend made note.
Here's another viewpoint for those who have seen The Fountain. Consider the idea of this being three worlds, two perspectives, and one man's enlightenment.
I'm reading comment after comment about their love "trancending space and time". It seems the consensus is that this is a story of two people or souls living the same love and loss in the past, present and future.
However, to my mind, this is exclusively his story. Their deep love is the catalyst for his journey. His wife has already come to the end of hers, as evidenced by her acceptance. His denial leaves him alone in with his grief.
The three worlds we experience are comprised of: 1) his reality (The grim truth as told from the outside. That his immense love for his wife leads to obsession - which causes him to neglect her in her final days.); 2) her romantic vision of his journey through her death (A conquistador's quest for an eternity together with his queen.); and 3) his spiritual vision of the painful and desperate efforts to save her (Isolation and desperation in that lonely bubble).
A final wish, she leaves him to write the last chapter of his story when she is gone. She knows the ending is his, and only he can write it.
As he resigns himself to ending the story, the three worlds become one. His final chapter (Remember, in my mind this movie is three versions of his journey: resolve for his wife, the tree, the queen.) throws open the doors of his agony.
His resolve to give her life. His failure to save her. His desperate and painful grief. All come to life on the page. And finally, in images beyond words, he finds true enlightenment, giving himself over, at last embracing and understanding her "journey to awe".
Just one more perspective on an immensely complex and beautiful movie.