Movie Review: The Fountain (January, 2007)

Plagued by recasting and budget cuts, no one could say that The Fountain’s journey to movie screens was an easy one. After leads Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett had to drop out and Warner Bros. pulled a portion of the funding it looked like Darren Aronofsky’s labour of love would be caught in limbo for a long time. The movie’s budget was reduced from $75 million to $35 million, forcing Aronofsky to cut a sprawling opening battle sequence. None of these obstacles have managed to have an effect on the end result. A rich, arresting movie, both beautiful and beguiling, The Fountain illustrates exactly why Aronofsky is still a director to watch, despite a seven-year absence after Requiem For A Dream (2000).
Firstly, credit must go to Hugh Jackman, who turns in a performance so committed and passionate that it’s virtually impossible to imagine Pitt in the role. Playing a triplet role as Tomas, Tommy and Tom Creo, spanning three different time periods, Jackman nails all three roles with gusto.

The Fountain is at its core a simple love story. In 16th century Spain, Conquistador Tomas sets out to locate the fabled Tree of Life to save Queen Isabella (Rachel Weisz) from the Inquisition. It’s during the present day that the bulk of the story unravels as medical research scientist Tom Creo strives to formulate a cure for his dying wife Izzi (Weisz, again) who has an inoperable brain tumour. It’s this emotional centre that drives the film, Jackman and Weisz providing powerful performances that make the central conceit of finding a treatment all the more heart wrenching. As Creo states: “Death is a disease…and there’s a cure.”

Floating through space in a bubble, surrounded by creamy, amber-gold nebula, Tommy appears to be the protector of the Tree of Life. Plagued by visions of Izzi and Isabella, it’s this strand of the story, which proves to be the most perplexing and ties the three threads together. Is he Tom Creo in the future: a product of the Tree of Life’s immortality-giving elixir? Perpetual whispers of “Finish it” drive Tommy mad and parallels between the hairs on the living bark of the tree echo the hairs on Izzi’s neck. That Tom Creo and Tommy are the same person seems to be the most likely rationalisation, but then The Fountain isn’t a film to be analysed and picked apart. Watch it for a unique experience: an epic journey, rather than expecting clear answers and explanations and you’ll get more out of The Fountain. Really, the only other movie that even resembles it for ideas, scope and sheer imagination is Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and credit must go to Total Film who got there first in labelling it 2001 for a new generation.
An intelligent, challenging movie, The Fountain deserves multiple viewings. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. You can analyse it all you want, try and decipher it’s meaning and unearth it’s elusive secrets, but at the end of the day The Fountain’s message is clear. Live life for the moment, pure and simple.
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