Susan Granger’s review of “The Fountain” (Warner Bros.)
When I looked up the word “confuse” in the dictionary, to my amazement, it did not have a negative connotation. It means “to mix up, to bring disorder among, to jumble, to perplex or mix up the mind or ideas of.”
This esoteric, metaphysical meditation revolves around Thomas (Hugh Jackman) whose wife Izzy (Rachel Weisz) is dying of an inoperable brain tumor while writing a novel in long-hand.
In the first section, set during the Spanish Inquisition, he’s a brave conquistador dispatched by Queen Isabella (Weitz) to find the Tree of Life whose sap bestows immortality. The second segment takes place in the present, where he’s a scientist obsessed with keeping his wife alive despite the admonitions of his supervisor (Ellen Burstyn). The third part shows him in the monastic lotus-position, traveling through space in a shimmering bubble on an emotional journey to the Xibalba nebula, which the Mayans associated with death and eternity. All three are interwoven.
So I’m not quite sure what Darren Aronofsky is doing with this bizarre, convoluted, often repetitive romantic fantasy except confusing us while confirming the power of love and commitment. Aronofsky burst onto the indie scene at Sundance with his brainy, black-and-white “Pi,” then made the shocking drug saga “Requiem for a Dream.” Now he’s delving into eclectic, somewhat incoherent concepts of guilt, loss and the nature of immortality, visually aided by the stunning, voluptuous cinematography of Matthew Libatique.
Perhaps it all adds up to the complicated, all-too-human necessity of feeling that you’re a part of something larger than yourself. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Fountain” is an audaciously original, spiritual 6. Just because you can’t figure it out doesn’t mean that there’s not something interesting going on.
