roguem | Review: The Fountain. (Reply)

Spoiler-free.

isil80 and I went to the cinema to see ‘The Fountain’ on Thursday, or should I rather say, she joined me. I’d kind of lost the will to see it after waiting for what’s felt like forever, but I finally decided that it’d been to long since my last trip to the cinema and I was in the mood to loose myself in the dark for a couple of hours.

I have to admit that during the first few sequence I was really confused and wondering what the hell was going on. And also starting to feel a bit disappointed thinking the whole film would be like this. But as the storyline with Tom and Izzi Creo started to unfold the other two storylines started to make more sense to me as well.

It is a beautiful film, visually, and I was stunned to learn that Instead of using CGI, Darren Aronofsky chose to do the special effects for the film by using micro-photography of chemical reactions on tiny petri dishes! It paid off, because it resulted in some beautiful images, which alone justified the ticket price.

To me the storyline with Tom and Izzi Creo was the most compelling, and it moved me several times. I actually got misty eyed more than once, which is a very rare thing for me. Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz really owned their characters, it felt like they’d just pored themselves in to Izzie and Tom and gave it their all, and that is one of the main reason this film holds up so well. As a fan of Hugh Jackman it was a joy to watch, I was actually surprised by his strong performance, but come to think of it he’s never really had this kind of opportunity before.

The film itself spurs a lot of thought after watching it, trying to find the meaning behind some of the actions, and the parallel storylines. I’ve read a lot of interesting theories this far, and the film will probably have me thinking for a while.

When we left the cinema I felt like I’d experienced a very important film, but couldn’t fully wrap my head around it and I wasn’t really sure that I’d want the DVD when it comes out, but I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit, and I have to say that it is a wonderful movie, and I will get the DVD because I want to watch it again and this time I can watch it with my theories in my head and see if I discover something new, because I think this is the kind of film that you can watch several times and discover something new, which is a rarity today.

I have a strong feeling this film will end up on the curriculum in several film schools pretty soon, and most likely some philosophy classes as well, as it does open up for debate on different viewpoints.

I’ve not said very much about the story in this review, but it is actually hard to give a coherent thought on it unless I’m discussing it with someone else who’s seen the film. I’d recommend that people check it out, but that they’d be awake when they do, because this movie needs brainpower. ;)

All in all, a visually stunning and thought provoking film, which I am looking forward to watching again.