Dr. Tom Creo is experimenting with a new potential cure for a tumor on a monkey in order to heal his terminally-ill wife Izzi. He transplants parts of an unknown tree from South America in the monkey's brain, and it regenerates the animal. However, it is too late and Izzi dies. Tom plants the seed of the mysterious tree near her grave. She gave him the manuscript of her novel and asks that he finishes the last chapter... In the novel, a 16th century Spanish grand Inquisitor is searching for Isabela, who sends Conquistador Tomas to South America to find a legendary tree of life so that she can prolong her life. Tomas loses his soldiers, but stumbles upon a Mayan pyramid where he is injured by a Mayan warrior. He reaches the tree of life and drinks its juice, but it just causes plants to grow from his body... In the far future, a bald Tom is traveling in a space sphere containing the tree of life, which prolonged his life as long as he eats bits of its crust, and Izzi's grave towards the Shibalba nebula, a legendary place that the Maya considered the source of life. The star explodes, engulfing Tom, the tree of life and the grave, uniting them.
Darren Aronofsky's peculiar and nonlinear film "The Fountain" is a hermetic contemplation on death, transience, attempts at prolonging life, Buddhism, Taoism and acceptance, which is aggravated by the director's occasional autistic approach. It is unpleasant, but ambitious and worthy watch, facing the viewers with some existential thoughts they would rather usually avoid. The main story of a doctor (Hugh Jackman) searching for the cure to cancer for his terminally-ill wife (Rachel Weisz) is a banal soap opera, sometimes even a bit tedious, but the two side stories are at times fascinating. The dialogue is standard and routine, but Aronofsky's visual style is a standout, filled with several unusual camera pans, huge close ups, match cuts and scene transitions. The scenes in the far future, where Tom is traveling in a transparent sphere through space, containing the tree of life and the grave of his wife, are the most awe-inspiring. One phenomenal frame, some 8 minutes into the film, shows Tom's fingers coming close to the tree, causing its "hairs" to "turn" towards his touch, while the next frame has a camera panning up from the close up of Izza's hand, through her arm, to her head out of focus. He is also seen as a black silhouette practicing Tai Chi moves in the background of thousands of stars. And there is a wide shot of this unusual transparent sphere, seen only as a small dot, going from the lower to the upper frame of the universe. At around 32 minutes into the film, there is an exquisite frame of Tom, in the modern story, reading Izzi's manuscript, as the frame pans towards the right and shows huge close ups of letters: "Spain is on fire. The grand Inquisition...", as it slowly dissolves into this actual subplot of 16th century Spanish Inquisition, transitioning to another segment. Despite the ending contemplating the cycle of life, "The Fountain" is more stimulating in its visual style than in its spirituality and philosophy.
Grade:++
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