DVD review
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Starring Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn, Mark Margolis
Release date 28 May 2007

A modern day doctor races against time to save his wife from cancer. A 16th century Spanish conquistador sets out to find the tree of life. And a man in space tries to unlock the secret of that very same tree…

The fact that The Fountain was greeted to a chorus of boos at its Venice Film Festival critics’ screening is a pretty good indication that this isn’t a movie for everyone. Darren Aronofsky’s ambitious (and much delayed) follow up to the exceptional Requiem for a Dream criss-crosses time and space in its three plot strands, the most bewildering of which involves a man inside a space bubble chewing on bits of bark and floating about in the lotus position. Now there’s something you wouldn’t find on your average Star Trek episode.

But does the film actually make any sense? Well, yes and no (although mostly ‘no’), with Aronofsky’s quasi-philosophical meditations on mortality and redemption perhaps less important than everything being really really good looking. π and Requiem for a Dream have already shown Aronofsky to be an expert visualist. Here he outdoes himself, telling his story through a series of beguiling, beautiful images that include bubbling orange sulphur skies and a man being consumed by flowers.

Jackman and Weisz do well not to get lost in the visuals. They’re centre stage in all three plot strands, suggesting love’s ability to transcend time (or something), and Jackman’s quietly desperate doctor in particular adds an emotional edge to the epic themes.

Like 2001, Solaris or Stalker this is science fiction of ideas and images rather than plot. If The Fountain is a little vacant at heart to really compare to those cerebral classics, it is nevertheless a bold and unique film that rejects a conventional approach to genre filmmaking, which is always something to be applauded.

Extras include a series of documentaries that chart the making of the three stages of the film, along with some background on the troubled production. The movie was originally earmarked as a big-budget blockbuster, only for production to be shut down when Brad Pitt pulled out, and eventually restarted on half the budget. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 8/10
And you thought π was odd.