The Fountain

Year: 2006 (USA)
Genre: Sci-Fi Drama
Directed: Darren Aronofsky
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn, Mark Margolis, Stephen McHattie, Fernando Hernandez, Cliff Curtis, Ethan Suplee, Sean Patrick Thomas
Production: Warner Bros.


The Fountain, the fountain, the fountain; the fountain of youth, the tree of life. Biblical piety, the natural world and the beauty of life through death. Lo the f***ing fountain. I hate The Fountain (2006). There’s no getting around that while the film tries so, so hard to make a statement about grief and death and the cyclical nature of the universe there’s no helping this pretentious, overlong bore is a stifling jumble of Philosophy 101 prattle made by a maddening blatherskite.

This shits mine now!

The film overlaps three narratives each with the same actors (Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz) playing different characters. The main story takes place in modern times; Tom Creo (Jackman) works in a biology lab where he’s trying to find a cure for cancer. He has extra motivation to find answers as his wife Izzi (Weisz) is slowing dying. He works tirelessly yet ignores the precious little time he has left with Izzi. Jump a few centuries in the past and we have a narrative supposedly created by Izzi in a book she’s writing. Queen Isabella of Spain is being politically questioned by the Grand Inquisitor (Stephen McHattie). Her solution: find the fountain of youth/tree of life by sending conquistador Tomas into the jungles of Central America looking for it. Then a few thousand years into the future (I think) Astronaut Tommy is nearing a dying star in a self-enclosed bubble containing a tree and the ghost of his dead wife.

Hurray plot contrivances!

If this all sounds confusing to you, you’re not alone; though that isn't the reason I despise this movie. The reason why this film is a waste of your time lies in the false correlation between its supposedly hopeful message and its sad, depressing emotional core. We’re meant to suffer through mysticism, biblical and Mayan origin myths, Buddhist and Taoist symbolism to tell us what? Death is a natural thing and we should accept it? By not accepting death, we’re essentially dooming the human race? Death is life? Thanks movie for that uplifting message, and thank you for convincing me of your worldview by showing me a suffering couple who love each other but can never be whole.

Still a better love story than Twilight

At least 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) attempted to give an unabashedly hopeful agnostic message and kept its emotions in check. On the other side of the philosophical spectrum The Tree of Life (2011) was emotionally engaging and gave a deeply spiritual monotheistic account of everyone and everything. The Fountain’s emotional core is as soapy as an overloaded dishwasher and its philosophy is contrived. It has the audacity to be utterly pointless.

Now I’m not saying the message is just flat out wrong. We all do have to die some day and when faced with the great abyss, being at peace would help. Yet the assumption on the part of the filmmakers’ is the value of life is muted by cosmic forces beyond our control. Life is nothing but clouds of grey dust, so wrap yourself around a dusty chair a light a damp cigarette because we’re all doomed anyway.

When this movie is at its most philosophically cogent, it’s nihilistic and brooding. Otherwise it’s a sorry assemblage of microphotography and fake set dressing. It’s enough to put anyone in a soporific stupor. May I suggest instead of watching The Fountain, you go outside and enjoy the rest of your existence? Go do something that gives you joy instead of being held captive in front of a darkly lit screen awaiting eternal sleep.

Final Grade: F