You should know that I really wanted The Fountain to be good. Aronofsky’s previous two films, Pi and Requiem for a Dream, were what got me interested in cinema in the first place. And while Aronofsky still knows how to handle the camera, it seems like he’s lost control of what to actually film. His “epic” is a triptych spanning the lives of two lovers in the years 1500, 2000, and 2500. The jungle adventures of a Spanish conquistador looking for the Tree of Life atop an ancient Mayan temple could well have been directed by a lesser-budgeted Peter Jackson (lush, but without scope). The modern sequences of a doctor trying to find a cure for his wife’s brain tumor—it might as well be Sam Mendes filming, with his simple observations of life, love, and loss. And as for the future scenario, Kubrick is written all over it, from the silent and meditative sequences, to its ambiguous (though not as prolonged) visual landscaping. The only thing that’s pure Aronofsky is the beautiful editing, the bleeding of one time to another, and that’s just eye candy to distract from the all-too-confusing plot. Read on at [Film Monthly]
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