The Fountain

last updated 8 January 2015

Don't be fooled by the art-school flourish, said Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times. The Fountain is an empty directorial indulgence. Darren Aronofsky (Pi and Requiem for a Dream) hopes that "heaps of phony portent and all-purpose mystical imagery" will make up for this movie's lack of real depth. Hugh Jackman plays the same man in the past, present, and future. In 2006, he's a doctor trying to save his wife (Rachel Weisz) from a fatal brain tumor. In the 16th century, he's seeks a New World fountain of youth for Queen Isabella (also played by Weisz). In the future, he's a bald space traveler in a floating bubble. Take away the three-part conceit, and you're left with Love Story'“style drivel about a man who falls in love with a dying girl. But you've got to admit that this film is a visual stunner, said Michael Booth in The Denver Post. If a few of the overwrought emotional scenes had been left on the cutting room floor, the film could be "a memorable sci-fi oddity." There's something to be said for this level of pretentiousness, said Jim Emerson in the Chicago Sun-Times. This movie, like the search for immortality itself, is ambitious folly. "I'd much rather watch somebody shoot for the moon when the stakes are sky-high than sit back while they play it safe."

Rating: PG-13