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The Fountain
USA 2006
produced by Arnon Milchan, Iain Smith, Eric Watson, Nick Wechsler (executive) for Warner Brothers, Regency, Protozoa Pictures
directed by Darren Aronofsky
starring Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn, Mark Margolis, Stephen McHattie, Fernando hernandez, Cliff Curtis, Sean Patrick Thomas, Donna Murphy, Ethan Suplee, Richard McMillan, Lorne Brass, Abraham Aronofsky, Renee Asofsky, Anish Majumdar, Janique Kearns, Boyd Banks, Alexander Bisping, Kevin Kelsall, Patrick Vandal, Marcello Brezina
story by Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel, screenplay by Darren Aronofsky, music by Clint Mansell, special effects by Giant Killer Robots, Group Image Buzz, Intrigue, visual effects by Intelligent Creatures, LOOK! Effects, Mokko Studios
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Izzi (Rachel Weisz), a writer and free spirit, is slowly dieing from a
brain tumor. Tommy (Hugh Jackman), her husband, just won't accept that,
and since he's working in cancer research anyways, he works all that much
harder to find a cure, even if that means occasionally neglecting her.
Eventually, he finds the cure in an old Mayan recipe, and manages to not
only cure his test monkey but to make him better than ever before. before
he can apply the cure on Izzi though, she dies away before his very eyes
...
Now that wouldn't be much of a movie, right, that's why The Fountain
has a second layer made up from dreams and from a story Izzi is writing:
Here, Izzi is the Spanish Queen Isabella who is fighting against the
inquisition, and Tommy is a conquistador who goes to Middle America to get
the secret of life from the Mayans, even if it means their death - but
ultimately, he has to realize he himself is the secret of life, the body
out of which grows the tree of life - quite literally.
To hold these two story threads together, we see a lot of Tommy
meditating, sometimes with a shaved head, and going to a sort of
dreamworld.
Apparently someone must have thought, the film (and especially its
script) was an intellectual achievement. Now I will admit as much: The
interlinking of the present and past stories is at times interesting to
say the least. But that's about it. Unfortunately, director Darren
Aronofsky fails to give the movie the intellectual background it needs,
instead relies heavily on special effects on one side and on esoteric
kitsch on the other, making this an incredibly cheesy piece of
pseudo-intellectual nothingness, that at times is actually nothing short
of annoying ... what a waste of time and money.
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