Director Darren Aronofsky's latest film, The Fountain, is about a couple who try to defeat death. Starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, the film weaves their love story through three different eras in history: the Spanish Inquisition, modern times and five hundred years in the future.
In the beginning, Tommy Creo (Hugh Jackman) plays a conquistador trying to find the biblical Tree of Life, hidden deep in the jungles of Central America. He seeks its magical sap, which gives the drinker immortality, to give to the Queen of Spain (Rachel Weisz) so she can escape the designing schemes of the head inquisitor, who is bent on ousting her from the throne.
Later in the film, Tommy is a research doctor, who tries to find a cure for the aggressive brain tumor that is killing his wife, Izzi, played by Weisz. In his quest, Tommy finds a promising new medicine made from the sap of mysterious tree from Central America.
While the first and second portions of the film clearly connect and compliment each other, there is still a third futuristic portion to deal with. Here, Hugh Jackman's role is unclear. He lives in a glass bubble with a tree, which may be the Tree of Life mentioned earlier. Whether it is the Tree of Life is unclear, as are the answers to many other questions -- What is Tommy doing there? How did he get there? Where did he get his Moby-inspired outfit? How does he survive in an enclosed bubble with no clear source of air?
This third portion accounts for the failure of the movie as a whole. It makes little to no sense and is laughable at times. Its new-age feel combined with weird, futuristic computer animation make this section of the movie alienating and so unrealistic that it disrupts the fabric of the film.
The movie's heavy-handed juxtaposition of life and death symbols gets tiresome. This symbolism ranges from the small, such as the cancer cell resembling the nebula star in the third portion, to the large and distracting, such as the futuristic nebula star which looks like a birth canal. These obvious symbols cheapen the movie. The movie's message, that nothing and no one can live forever, is made even more pedestrian by the over-use of these symbols.
Hugh Jackman gives a good, though by no means Oscar-worthy, performance. The star of the movie, however, is obviously Rachel Weisz. Even when given very little to work with in terms of dialogue, she delivers a strong performance. She chiefly shines in the second portion, when she plays the dying wife.
The Fountain is disappointing, especially as the long-awaited new film of Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream). While Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz make a charismatic couple, the screenplay is corny and its message is old. While this movie has its interesting moments, they are not enough to merit the recommendation of the movie.
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