The Fountain

The Fountain Darren Aronofsky has brought us another psychadelic sci-fi drama. It’s not a time-travel flick, it’s not an immortality flick—it’s more one of those high-concept films that is impossible to pin down. The Fountain starts out almost incoherently and it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to figure out who’s doing what when (if you can ever really figure that out). Everything comes together in the end, though, with the three separate-but-similar storylines, seemingly occuring in different time periods, merging (sort of), or at least reaching the end together. Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz play a couple who are searching for the answer to eternal life in three very different ways—one through science, one through religion and one through enlightenment. After seeing some of Aronofsky’s previous films—Requiem for a Dream and Pi in particular—The Fountain is surprisingly beautiful. There are a few scenes of violence, and Jackman’s characters (two of them, at least) are not always likeable, but Weisz brings everything back down to a slow-paced serenity. It’s not an easy film to watch because it makes you think, and although all of the pieces don’t fit perfectly into place (the enlightenment scenes are a bit lost in outer space), it’s definitely one of the most unique films of recent memory.