The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain (DVD))

Member Name: Lichfield1979

Product:	The Fountain (DVD)
Date:	18/11/08 (256 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The music and the art direction

Disadvantages: The unconventional narrative is not going to appeal to everybody

The Fountain (2006)

The Fountain always had a great premise.

Three stories in three separate time frames - A conquistador sent by a Queen to search for the tree of life in ancient Mexico; a scientist searching for a cure for cancer to heal his dying wife in the modern era; and a monk safeguarding the transportation of a precious cargo across the stars in the far fetched future. The same two actors would play the leads in each.

Director Darren Aronofsky's script was originally slated to star Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett but budget cuts led to rewrites and the visual effects were redesigned. Eventually the movie starred Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz.

The plot is not necessarily important to The Fountain and neither is the dialogue. The story is largely a framework for the sepia drenched art direction and the orchestral soundtrack to make imaginative statements. It's a brave attempt to sweep the audience up in something different to the usual cinematic experience and the film was widely praised for its ambition if not it's coherence.

We begin with a Genesis quotation and then Rachel Weisz and a ring and a white light in an ornamental historical setting and then straightaway a flashback to Hugh Jackman knelt in a temple. There's a brutal battle sequence as tribesmen repel the Spanish intruder. We see a constellation and a temple top in the clouds as fires burn in smoky light. A priestly figure, who is also a warrior, speaks of sacrifice for the tree of life. He stabs the hero. "Death is the road to awe"

A scream. Now we're watching a Buddhist meditate, levitating through space in a glass dome that contains the tree of life. But it's the same constellation and the same man but he's bald now. They're approaching a nebula. He's wearing the ring we saw at the start. He promises the tree they'll be all right. He eats from the tree as an elegant cello motif plays. We intercut with an apparition of two people talking at an earlier time. Then black silhouette callisthenics on a black and white dapple of star fields. The monk is haunted by the ghost of a woman dressed in white who resembles the medieval queen but is clearly from the present day.

In the present day the monk/conquistador is a scientist or a doctor called Tommy and Tommy has mid-length hair. His wife Izzy has long hair in her flashbacks but something has happened because she's cut it short. There's an odd piece of rhyming dialogue. Tommy is treating a patient for cancer in some sort of experiment, and it's not going well. He looks up at the snow falling on the skylight. Somebody mentions a tree from Guatemala that may have chemical healing properties helpful to their research. Now Tommy's getting chewed out by a supervisor who's concerned but thinks he's reckless. Tommy should spend more time with his wife. He says she's the reason he does his work.

At home there are paintings of South America. Izzy is out on a ledge in the snow with a telescope, stargazing. She's looking at a gold nebula wrapped around a dying star. She says the Mayans called it the underworld where dying souls go to be reborn. Izzy is writing a book. It begins in Spain. She wonders how the Mayans found a dying star. Izzy is ill. But she's in good enough spirits for some horseplay in the snow.

Now we're in the nebula. The globe has arrived and there's a yellow gold hue in the black space.

Tommy bathes Izzy. She notes his wedding band is gone and teases him he can't wait until after she's gone. She wants him to read the book she's writing. Suddenly she reacts to the temperature of the water. He's scared. She says she can feel things are changing. They kiss. She pulls him into the bath fully clothed. They kiss as the water overflows. The screen goes white. The book is called The Fountain. She wants him to read it. It's not quite finished. At the lab they've made a breakthrough with a monkey but it's not quite enough.

Lingering dreamlike camera shots of Izzy running slowly through the house, turning backwards as she smiles, her hair flowing. Shot of her lying sideways in bed with short hair. Tommy climbs in and reassures her. He kisses the sheet around her like the monk kissing the tree of life in the future. He walks into the next room tearful and begins to read. Chapter One.

A guy is flagellating himself in front of a large open fire with impressive stonework. This is the inquisitor. He is thirsty for territorial power. Imagery blends ornately. "Tommy" is kneeling in church. He is loyal to Queen Isabella and will protect her interests from the inquisitor. He rides and then sails towards a castle.

The inquisitor elaborates some dark ideas about life and death as he tortures some heretics who are hanging upside down. Tommy is prowling around inside this place and meets somebody he knows. They talk at sword point. The heretics are dropped into a pit and executed.

The Queen's palace is an amazing hall of pillars and hanging ornaments. She praises Tommy's loyalty but says killing the inquisitor would be suicide. In the jungles of New Spain there's a secret that will free mankind from tyranny. The Inquisitor fears it. Tommy is presented with the religious dagger of a Mayan priest. It is marked with a map to the greatest Mayan secret. A lost pyramid and a tree whose sap will let those who drink from it live forever. The Queen tells him this is no pagan yarn. White light floods the chamber as she step from behind the grate that has concealed her face and he kneels to her. Salvation lies in the jungles of New Spain. She presents him with a ring to remind him of his promise and for him to wear when he reaches Eden.

Smash cut to the present day where Tommy drops the book with a shudder and we see Izzy is gone from the bedroom. He finds her at a museum exhibition. There's a Mayan book. A priest's body becomes the tree of life which grows to the nebula and death becomes creation. Izzy collapses. Tommy paces around the stone circle floor.

She wakes up in hospital. Tommy is throwing himself into more medical research. He's stressing out his colleagues and gets another telling off from his supervisor. He's ignoring good results because his priority is helping his wife. He's not being rational. New drugs cannot be invented overnight. He should be with his wife but feels he has to be here. Left alone he sweeps everything from his desk in frustration.

Tommy walks through hospital corridors. Everything has a luscious drained light with lots of greys and greens and browns and gold. He brings Izzy the manuscript. Tries to tell her about the research. She stops him. Gives him a present. He unwraps it. Pen and ink. She wants him to help her finish the story. He doesn't know how it ends. She tells him he will. They talk and she tells him a story and they get tearful

The tree is still in the orb floating through the gold nebula towards the dying star. When the star explodes the star will be reborn. Tommy eats a pellet from the tree. At the hospital he tells the sleeping Izzy not to worry. They're almost there. The tree of life is a metaphor for her.

Tommy opens the book again and leafs through and we're in New Spain again in the jungle beneath the constellations. A Spanish Father holds the dagger to the stars to use as a map. Torrential rain hits the clearing. Lightning flashes, and thunder. He finds what he's looking for and slots the dagger into a plate on the floor.

There's a power struggle in the camp of the Spanish conquistadors. The father dies but the traitors are vanquished. Rapid cutting between past and present and future. Izzy's vital signs are crashing. Tommy sees her wedding ring and is agitated his is missing. He receives word the research has progressed. But Izzy is dead. He won't believe it. He tries to resuscitate her. In the future the tree is faltering. The monk trembles with anger and hysterical grief.

There's a funeral in the snow. A field of white. A huddle of black mourners in winter coats. Eulogies by the graveside. Tommy walks away. Izzy's mother follows him. He tells her "Death is a disease. It is like any other. And there is a cure. And I will find it." Flashes to a Mayan warrior priest swinging fire at the conquistador.

And the book goes blank. Empty pages. Tommy knocks stuff over. Ink spills. He picks up the nib and cuts his finger where the wedding band ought to be. He draws blood. He tattoos himself all the way round with tears in his eyes. He sits in their empty bedroom, sobbing. The monk in the future has the same tattoo but he's gone all the way up his arm like the rings of a tree. Many years have passed.

In the science lab Tommy is back at work but his partners don't look like they think he should be back. He tells them to get to work. Meanwhile the tree has arrived at the nebula. Tommy is seeing ghosts. He screams at Izzy, leave me alone. He's knelt at her feet like she was the Queen. The globe is dripping with light. He doesn't know how to keep his promise. She tells him he will. In a flashback to the hospital Tommy is being pulled away from Izzy. He's shouting "together we'll live forever." The globe looks the same inside and out. White and browns in a golden hue of organic streaks.

Somehow we're back at the beginning. We hear that unusual piece of rhyming dialogue again. This time Tommy follows Izzy out into the snow. In the future he climbs the tree. He floats upwards in a new bubble. A Buddhist silhouette. With closed eyes. In the past the warrior-priest stabs the conquistador. Draws blood. The monk is meditating on this. Now he's levitating in the temple. The warrior drops to worship. Forgive me. The conquistador takes the knife and the priest offers his own neck in sacrifice. He steps out to see the tree of life growing in a terrace of water in the golden sun high above the jungle. He plunges the dagger into the tree. Shoots and flowers spontaneously grow. Sap pours onto his fingertips, heals his wounds. He removes the dagger and drinks the sap. The tree is flooded with golden light. He looks up to the stars. But he drops the ring. His body keels over and plantation begins spurt from his chest on the floor. The monk has the ring in the future. Slots the ring onto his finger over the tattoo amidst a sea of CGI art direction which suddenly fades to a single dot of light before all hell breaks loose with the music and the visual effects.

There's a blurred vision of Izzy picking a thorny nut from a tree. Now Tommy is kneeled by her graveside uncovering snow. He buries the nut in the snow on top of her grave. Light fades to night. Stars burn brighter. White and grey patterns billow like smoke and cream as gold credits roll. A Darren Aronofsky film. Finally, a black screen of sparse stars. The music sounds awesome.

Don't worry about spoilers for this one. It's not about the story so you'll be disappointed if you try to make it that way. It's about the imagery and the music and the symbolism and the themes being explored. If it sounds like your cup of tea, check it out. For ninety minutes I found it an interesting and provocative brew. I won't tell you what the film means. That's up to you.

Summary: A flawed triumph of adventurous film making.