The Fountain
Seen sometime last week at AMC Boston Common
* * * * (out of 5)
The basic plotline in The Fountain is interesting enough – a Spanish conquistador falls in love with his queen, and on her behalf quests for the Fountain of Youth. That quest kicks off a 1000-year journey to save his love through the centuries. Simple enough, right? Could be entertaining. What sucks for you is that Darren Aronofsky got ahold of it and made it his own. Still entertaining, but now it gives you a headache to go along with it.
The 16th-century conquistador in question is Tomas (Hugh Jackman), who is one of the few remaining followers of the rogue Queen Isabel (Rachel Weisz). She has been declared a heretic because of her belief in the Fountain of Youth that supposedly resides in the New World. If Tomas can bring her evidence of this, she will marry him and accompany him back to the New World to live for eternity. Sweet deal. Flash forward five hundred years, and here’s present-day Tom Creo (Jackman), a neurosurgeon looking for a cure to brain tumor-induced cancers from which his wife Izzi (Weisz) happens to be suffering. Flash forward five hundred years AGAIN, to roughly 2500 AD, and we have Tommy (Jackman) floating around space in a bubble with a strangely reactive tree, searching for some sort of answer at the heart of a dying star.
Yeah, it’s weird. But strangely enough, it all works. The best advice for watching is to try and hold in your mind that not only as these stories working consecutively, but concurrently as well. It’s difficult at first, but Aronofsky has cut the film in a way that helps you accept that so long as you are open to it to begin with. All three stories are very well done, and Jackman cruises through all three “acts” with style. He gives each era’s Tommy a very distinctive feel, all the while maintaining some of the basic traits that let you know this is still the same guy. Weisz is good too, but she has significantly less to do. Present-day Izzi is the meatiest piece for her, but even Izzi is somewhat weak. She does have a nice contrast between no longer fearing death and still wanting to drag the most out of life in what little time she has left. The dynamic between the present-day couple (the only time we really get to see them honestly interact) is very realistic and nice to watch.
Read the rest at HBS!
* * * * (out of 5)
The basic plotline in The Fountain is interesting enough – a Spanish conquistador falls in love with his queen, and on her behalf quests for the Fountain of Youth. That quest kicks off a 1000-year journey to save his love through the centuries. Simple enough, right? Could be entertaining. What sucks for you is that Darren Aronofsky got ahold of it and made it his own. Still entertaining, but now it gives you a headache to go along with it.
The 16th-century conquistador in question is Tomas (Hugh Jackman), who is one of the few remaining followers of the rogue Queen Isabel (Rachel Weisz). She has been declared a heretic because of her belief in the Fountain of Youth that supposedly resides in the New World. If Tomas can bring her evidence of this, she will marry him and accompany him back to the New World to live for eternity. Sweet deal. Flash forward five hundred years, and here’s present-day Tom Creo (Jackman), a neurosurgeon looking for a cure to brain tumor-induced cancers from which his wife Izzi (Weisz) happens to be suffering. Flash forward five hundred years AGAIN, to roughly 2500 AD, and we have Tommy (Jackman) floating around space in a bubble with a strangely reactive tree, searching for some sort of answer at the heart of a dying star.
Yeah, it’s weird. But strangely enough, it all works. The best advice for watching is to try and hold in your mind that not only as these stories working consecutively, but concurrently as well. It’s difficult at first, but Aronofsky has cut the film in a way that helps you accept that so long as you are open to it to begin with. All three stories are very well done, and Jackman cruises through all three “acts” with style. He gives each era’s Tommy a very distinctive feel, all the while maintaining some of the basic traits that let you know this is still the same guy. Weisz is good too, but she has significantly less to do. Present-day Izzi is the meatiest piece for her, but even Izzi is somewhat weak. She does have a nice contrast between no longer fearing death and still wanting to drag the most out of life in what little time she has left. The dynamic between the present-day couple (the only time we really get to see them honestly interact) is very realistic and nice to watch.
Read the rest at HBS!
posted by Matt S. at
11:12 AM
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