The Good

Darren Aronfsky has made a film that takes every cinematic chance imaginable.

The Bad

Did this movie have to be so cerebral it became inaccessible?

The Fountain is a tale of three lives that are all the same, happening at the exact same time, in what seems like a multiverse. This film stars Hugh Jackman and Rachel Wiesz as the characters who are living within these parallel times. In one of them we see Jackman find the fountain of youth, in the other we see these two characters in the present day as Jackman’s character tries to find a cure for his wife (Weisz), who is stricken with cancer, and in the the third story we see Jackman as a cosmonaut of sort who seems to be remembering the past of which Weisz is also a part.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

You will notice that I didn’t refer to the characters by their names and I really didn’t even tell you about this film’s story. Truth be told, I don’t think I can. I leave the names out because they are essentially the same in each story. Jackman is Tommy and Weisz is Isabel, or a variation thereof. As for the story of this movie? I am not going to feign some understanding that I don’t have. I didn’t get what Director Darren Aronofsky was trying to achieve and I think he might have had better luck had he not made the narrative so discombobulated. As it stands, I found Inland Empire worlds easier to put together.

Features

“Inside The Fountain: Death and Rebirth” (Standard and HD-DVD Side)

This wasn’t what I was expecting nor was it what I was hoping for. Just as much as I dislike movies that telegraph themselves too much, I surely don’t take kindly to those that leave me befuddled. This section in broken up into 6 parts that look at the time periods in which this movie takes place. This was interesting to watch, mainly because this movie certainly has a vision behind its look, but beyond that I didn’t get the sort of answers that I had hoped I would.

HD-DVD side only

Interview with Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman is nothing if not well spoken. In this discussion he muses on the themes of the film, and even ventures ideas about what he thinks certain things in the movie mean. However, something tells me that Aronofsky told him to be coy about just how much he revealed, because I couldn’t help thinking that Jackman could have offered viewers more. With a run time of about 12 minutes I don’t think its a bad idea to screen this before you watch the actual movie.

Inside the Director’s Mind

VFX Step by Step and Macro Photography Loop

The VFX Step by Step section is exactly what you think it might be. This looks at the FX that were employed in this movie. However, the Macro Photography Loop seems to be what The Fountain ultimately aspired to be. This is a very long assemblage of images and music. Why one might want to sit down and watch this whole thing is beyond me, but I am sure that use of drugs or a mellow party could certainly call for this piece to be turned on. The quality of the images in this section are staggering in their clearness and scope, which is about the best thing I think you can say about it.

Video

1.78:1 - Widescreen. HD Video in 1080p. As this is one of those HD-DVD/DVD combo discs, one has the chance to view this film in both the standard format and in high definition. As I have screened this film in the theater, I decided to rewatch this movie in parts. I started in standard and then I moved over to high definition. By default, it seems like the high definition side looks better. This is next generation technology we are dealing with so the picture is nothing if not sharper. I use the word default before because Aronofsky has soaked this film in so much black (both in the interior and exterior shots), that I don’t know how much the formats matter. However, when he does want to create something magnificent on screen, the quality of this release glistens to the eye.

Audio

English: Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 (HD-DVD) / Dolby Digital 5.1 (Standard). French: Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitled in English, French and Spanish. In all honestly, the audio in this movie is so meek for many of the scenes, that when it is employed it doesn’t seem to have all the punch that it could. Again, I listened to this in both standard and HD-DVD and like I mentioned above about the film’s look, the quality of the sound is better in HD-DVD but that probably doesn’t surprise too many people. There is a strength to the way the music is used and at times I got frustrated because it seems like Aronofsky could have made a much more accessible film.

Package

Hugh Jackman stares up at Rachel Weisz on this front cover with the seminal tree from the film between them. The dark tones and bursts of light give anyone interested in watching this movie a very clear idea of what its about. The back cover lists out a description of this film, it offers up the Special Features, a cast list and the requisite specs for your system. Something about the red of this plastic, HD-DVD box plays very nicely with the colors of the artwork.

Final Word

When talking about this movie people often bring up Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant 2001: A Space Odyssey. They seem to think that just because The Fountain has an element of outer space in it that that puts it in the realm of 2001. What nobody even seems to mention is that 2001: A Space Odyssey doesn’t get really far out until the last 15 minutes of the movie. Before that, it is a tightly conceived story of space travel that seems to show us man’s evolution to becoming space explorers. Then it focuses itself on the vagaries of depending too much on machines, especially computers who have somehow developed emotions. Finally, after being cut off from earth in this deadly spacecraft, the sole survivor heads out into the great unknown.

The problem with The Fountain is that Darren Aronofsky has made a film that leaves the viewers out in the cold. Like George Lucas before him, Aronofsky can be accused of “vaporizing” the audience. Understand this however, I am not going to give up on him. He has complained that people want different things but that this different effort was not well received. One might want to ask him, does different have to mean incomprehensible? Does it have to be so different as to be almost visibly frustrating?

From a purely visual standpoint, seeing The Fountain on HD-DVD is an experience worth having. Just know you might come away wondering what the heck you’ve just watched.

The Fountain was released November 22, 2006.