FauxNixon

I had high expectations for this movie having seen director Darren Aronofsky’s previous films: Pi and Requiem for a Dream and enjoying both immensely. That said, The Fountain has a significant depth to its plot that is typical for Aronofsky’s work, but in this case it seems to almost over-power the plot. There are at least three revolving sets, scenes, and characters, all of whom are related, but each of which is distinct: a bald Hugh Jackman in a spherical cosmic envelope traveling with a large tree with whom he speaks; a character portrayed by Jackman as a guardian to the Spanish queen as played by Rachel Weiscz at an indeterminate point in time; and what seems to be a present and rational world in which Weiscz’s character Izzy is married to Jackman’s character and is dying of a terminal form of cancer. The character portrayed by Jackman is pursuing with often reckless abandon a course of study to determine a proper cure for cancer in the beginning, and then to develop the discovery of what appears to be a solution to aging. That said, this is the superficial and, laughably, the simple explanation.

Very deep religious undertones and thematic elements are at play here with Jackman taking on at various times buddhist, Abrahamic, and other religious concepts including a Tree of Life somewhere in Central America, guarded by Mayans. Determining how the layers of this film’s plot fit together is essentially the overall point to the movie and that seems to be a unifying theme that death is a necessity and that it is only through death that life may be renewed, be it through reincarnation, rebirth, self-sacrifice as the very basis for other life, or any other religious concepts. This thematic element transcends each of the religions depicted with any significance and binds the three storylines into one cohesive plot.

Like most of Darren Aronofsky’s work there is a significant amount of work left to the viewer in determining how the movie works and what it is saying; I tend to think of this concept as what separates a very good movie from a more modest one, but without such an attitude, it is unlikely this movie will be enjoyable for viewers. The basic thing to remember here is that if you have liked any of the previous films from this director, it should be a good bet that you’ll enjoy this one as well.