The Fountain
Year: 2006
Director: Darren Aronofsky
IMDB

Lets start by saying the I absolutely loved both Pi and Requiem For A Dream they are definitely two of my favorite movies. With that said, I came into The Fountain with very high hopes considering it was both directed and written by Aronofsky. I was pleased and disappointed.

You can find plot summaries elsewhere, lets just say that the basic plot is the idea of three stories dealing with a man struggling and coping with death. The movie jumps liberally between the three stories, one set in present time, one set in the age of conquistadors, and one set in a distant future. Now, the relation between the three stories is open for interpretation and the viewer needs to make some logical leaps of faith to piece it all together into something that kind of makes sense. If you want to read a detailed labor of love of logically putting the movie together you can check it out here: (WARNING: Huge Spoilers) Tomas, Tommy, Tom But even that write up is open for interpretation.

So moving along right past the plot, the movie is visually stunning. The present, past and future segments all have a very distinct look and feel and they all look amazing. There are some visual themes of entrapment and a reoccurring theme of long narrow corridors that ties in great with the main theme of the movie. I was expecting all this rich visual splendor after the beautiful Pi and Requiem For A Dream. So in this respect I was very pleased. In fact, its the only thing that makes this movie bearable. The acting is also top notch (Rachel Weisz is fantastic like always), but after the movie ends, I felt dazed and confused. The end is very unsatisfying and I guess I was waiting for the movie to piece itself together by the end, it never does.

On to the special features. I was left wanting more here too, there is a trailer included, some featurettes and then a behind the scenes look at the making of the movie. The special features mysteriously lack a directors commentary. A little research and I found out that there was some conflict with the studio and Aronofsky made one on his own. You can download it here: The Fountain Commentary. The behind the scenes look at the making of the movie is very interesting. It touches on the usual behind the scenes production that I always love, but it also offers insight into two specific things which I found very interesting.

First, the movie was scheduled to be shot in 2005, with a huge budget. Apparently Brad Pitt backed out (maybe he read the script a second time) at the last minute, and then the whole production was scraped, including selling off the sets that had already been started. Two years later, Aronofsky gets the green light to shoot the movie again, this time, with half the budget. This explains a lot. Like why a movie that spans centuries in its plot only clocks in at a little over an hour and a half. The other tid bit of information I found really interesting is that Aronofsky kept the CG to a minimum and actually used macro photography to create the space and nebula scenes. I’m sure it was partly a budget thing, but I guess once again necessity is the mother of invention and the visual effects came out pretty amazing. If you want to read more on the production and all that wikipedia delivers like always.

In retrospect, I’m still torn about the movie. Visually it’s everything I expected and more, but I feel like the plot might have been another victim of studio power. I can only eagerly await an extended directors cut and hopefully that will satisfy me.

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