The Fountain
Written and Directed by: Daniel Aronofsky
Starring: Hugh Jackman (Tomas, Tommy Creo, & Tom), Rachel Weisz (Queen Isabella & Izzy Creo), and Ellen Brestyn (Dr. Lillian Guzetti)
Rating 8.2
[Note to Readers: This review contains glimpses into the plot that some might consider spoilers. You have been warned.]
Tell me – when do most humans feel at the top of their game? When do you feel your best? Is it in the midst of your darkest trials? Do feelings of elation wash over you at about 1:14pm on a Wednesday afternoon when you return to work from your lunch break? What about 2 outs left in the 6th inning of a game between the Kansas City Royals and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the middle of May? Do you become giddy at the 10:13 mark in the 3rd Quarter of Game 6 in Week 7 of the NFL Season? And I’m sure that Week 27 of that 9-month pregnancy is fantastic – right ladies?
Am I even close to the mark? Is anyone feeling good, great, and/or wonderful at those times?
Uh, no. Nope. Not at all. And why might this be? It’s because we humans simply enjoy completing things. We enjoy the rush that comes from achieving something, anything, no matter how small or insignificant it might be. So, if you’re Daniel Aronofsky (writer/director of noted/loved/fawned-over indie flicks Pi and Requiem For A Dream), you have to be on top of the world after finally completing and releasing the film that’s consumed the last 6 years of your life – 6 years filled with differing levels of angst and frustration over cast changes, production company shifts, decreases in your film budget, and a host of other complications that short-changed and delayed the release of his sci-fi/fantasy epic The Fountain. Originally slated to star Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett using a $70 million dollar budget, Aronofsky found himself battling with companies that didn’t have the same vision for his film that he did, and, if you’ve read some of the reviews out there about this film, many critics and movie-goers have no idea what that vision is either. Nevertheless, the film came to theaters in November 2006 to warring choruses of boos and cheers and a great sense of trepidation in this reviewer’s mind.
The story twists and turns its way across three timelines, the events of which are relentlessly intertwined (even if one of them could be fictional), and two core characters (portrayed with matchless passion and dedication to Aronofsky’s vision by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz), whose storylines across those three timelines even serve as metaphors for each other. Tomas (Jackman) is a 16th-century conquistador, in service to Queen Isabella of Spain (Weisz), who is sent to the New World to look for a secret Mayan temple that is the long-hidden resting place for the Tree of Life (i.e. The Fountain of Youth, hence the movie’s title). This is The Tree which, according to some sort of theological prognostication based on Genesis 3, God hid upon Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Tommy Creo (Jackman) is a 21st-century zoologist/cancer researcher who, in the process of attempting to cure a monkey named Donovan, has stumbled upon a botanical artifact from an old-growth tree in Central America that might prove to be the antidote for his wife Izzy’s (Weisz) terminal illness. And in the 26th Century, a man named Tom (also Jackman) travels through space in a transparent sphere with a seemingly sentient tree, frequently works on his extensive tattoos using an ink made from an extraction from that tree, and often experiences flashbacks and visions featuring the 21st-century Izzy and himself as Tommy. Still following? I haven’t lost you yet, have I?
The general story looks a bit like this. It begins with Tomas the Conquistador (with only two fellow-travelers) fighting off a legion of Mayan warriors so that he might reach the pinnacle of a temple in the distance. We learn later that Tomas is loyal to Queen Isabella of Spain, who is under political attack from the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church spreading like wildfire throughout Europe. It is the Queen who sends him to the New World to search for the Tree of Life and, as she gives Tomas a ring to secure her commitment to him, she promises to become her “Eve†to his “Adam†when he locates the Tree and returns with its live-giving essence.
As this plot develops, we move into the 21st- century where we learn that those events are merely (merely?) from a story entitled “The Fountain†that Izzy Creo has written. In the midst of the slow decline from her terminal illness, Izzy has left the last chapter empty, imploring her husband, Tommy Creo, to complete the story after he finishes reading it and after she passes away. Izzy seems content and at ease with her coming death, yet (obviously) her coming death frustrates and maddens her husband who, while able to use a newly-found part of a tree to heal a cancer-ridden monkey, seems unable to heal his wife. Tommy becomes maniacal in his determination to find a cure using that tree extract in order to honor his wife’s memory – if he can’t save Izzy, he would at least be able to save others on her behalf.
And finally, interspersed with those two sets of events are flashes and glimpses of this bald and quite despondent space traveler who has an intense relationship with the tree sharing a sphere with him as they wander through the cosmos. Tom talks often to the tree, which responds in kind by raising what looks like small hairs all over its trunk (one of the more amazing cinematic feats of this film). It is this traveler that gives rise to most of the unbelievable incredulities surrounding the plot, especially when attempting to determine whether or not Tom the same as Tommy and/or is either of them is the same as Tomas.
In what might be a rather large and obvious under-exaggeration, the biggest strike against The Fountain is that plot in many places became very convoluted. To be sure, this is not because Aronofsky wanted to intentionally muddy the waters and make the storyline(s) hard to follow. The frustration comes because it proved to be quite difficult to continually track through three separate-yet-connected timelines without hoping for some kind of roadmap to illumine the way. The lack of any attempt to achieve a linear storyline (as there is often a great deal of track-jumping and timeline-shifting) is both this movie’s most forward-thinking characteristic and its most considerable flaw, making it the primary roadblock from this movie entering into the popular pantheon of being a “must-watch†movie.
Nevertheless, those obvious issues aside, Jackman and Weisz’s strong and fervent acting must be praised as their unwavering and steadfast devotion drove the film onward and kept me glued to my seat. I can state unequivocally that this film should go down as Jackman’s best work to date (I mean, is it really that hard to play a pissed-off Logan/Wolverine in 3 movies or play a dark and brooding good guy/love interest?). Furthermore, Aronofsky deserves oceans of credit for rejecting formulas and pushing the boundaries of what science fiction and screenwriting might be able to look like.
As I stated in the beginning, we humans love coming to an ending, a conclusion to the events that have been occurring in our lives. However, humans have this uncanny ability to reach the end of something (anything!) and forget to learn from the circumstances and experiences through which they have just walked. But I think that the message of The Fountain is that the end (death in Izzy’s terminology) should serve as a way to provide perspective and a heightened sense of appreciation for the steps that have been taken along the journey that is a complete life. There must be an end; there has to be an end. Without an end, we cannot look upon the events that have occurred with any level of appreciation, understanding, or comprehension. Why else has Izzy reached such a level of contentment for the end that was hers? She came to realize that the end is what made her love life, something she couldn’t do while living life. Suffice to say, Aronofsky, throughout the course of the film, presents major hurdles for the average viewer to leap, but, if you’re willing to run with the plot as he presents it and engage in some deep, multi-faceted mental and (dare I say it?) spiritual exercises, then The Fountain proves to be worth more than a few viewings.