"The Fountain": Beautiful, imaginative, sometimes mystifying
There's something achingly sincere about the past-present-and-future mini-epic "The Fountain," written and directed by Darren Aronofsky ("Requiem for a Dream"). Its actors fling themselves into the drama with visible passion and commitment, and its images are often stunningly beautiful. That said, it's also at times thoroughly mystifying, though never less than engaging to watch.
In the making for seven years, the film has a three-tiered structure. Its main story is set in the present, with a scientist named Tommy (Hugh Jackman) racing to discover a cure for the cancer that is killing his wife Izzi (Rachel Weisz). Meanwhile, in 16th-century Spain, Queen Isabel (Weisz) sends a conquistador, Tomas (Jackman), through battle to find the Fountain of Youth. And far into the future, a man (Jackman) travels to a distant planet to find the Tree of Life.
All of this is the stuff of fantasy; even the contemporary segment seems to take place in another world, of strangely dark operating rooms and picturesque dustings of blue-tinged snow. But Tommy and Izzi's tale resonates as romantic tragedy, so much so that it's almost painful to watch. Weisz wistfully conveys a woman who knows she's slipping away, and just wants a last walk in the snow; Jackman's Tommy seems distracted, but not for lack of love. (In one scene, he walks along a busy nighttime sidewalk in total silence — until a screech of brakes reminds us that he's blocked the world out.) Izzi, a writer, is working on book that's connected to the other sequences in the movie; Tommy can hardly bear to talk about it. It's all done, she says, except the last chapter.
It's a lovely movie-within-a-movie; the rest of "The Fountain" is intriguing but often puzzling. The Spanish segments, though breathtakingly filmed (the throaty-voiced Weisz, in elaborate 16th-century costume, is dazzlingly beautiful; the camera seems to caress her), are presented with little context. And the futuristic sequences are even more so; often you just don't know what the film is up to.
"The Fountain" would likely reward multiple viewings; at 96 minutes it's curiously short, as if its wings were slightly clipped. But it's refreshing to be in the hands of a filmmaker with a unique vision, and a pleasure to be challenged by a film's flights of imagination.
Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com
Opens today
Movie review
"The Fountain" with Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn. Written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, from a story by Aronofsky and Ari Handel. 96 minutes. Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of violent action, some sensuality and language. Several theaters.