The Fountain

 The Fountain 2006

• Director: Darren Aronofsky
• Seen by this director: Black Swan, The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn, Sean Patrick Thomas, Cliff Curtis
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Hugh Jackman – The Greatest Showman, Wolverine etc, Chappie, Les Misérables, Australia, Kate & Leopold
• Rachel Weisz – The Favourite, The Deep Blue Sea, The Constant Gardener, About a Boy, Beautiful Creatures, Sunshine
• Ellen Burstyn - Interstellar, The Devine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Requiem for a Dream, Walking Across Egypt, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, The Last Picture Show
• Sean Patrick Thomas - Honeydripper
• Cliff Curtis – Doctor Sleep, Sunshine, Whale Rider, Once Were Warriors, The Piano
• Why? Interesting film
• Seen: Once before. Now14 August 2022      

       A queen condemned to death for heresy. A conquistador killed by a Mayan priest. A man under a vast starry sky, scraping bark of a gigantic tree and eating it. An irritable scientist urged by a smiling woman in white to take a walk with her in the first snow. A woman, perhaps dying, on a bed.

       Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz play these two in intertwined stories, the main one being a scientist trying to find the cure before his wife dies of cancer.

       Mayan myths, Christian myths, eternal life.

       This is neither a masterpiece nor a turkey. It has strong moments, dull moments, pretentious moments. Jackman and Weisz are always good.

       It’s an honest, if not completely successful attempt to once again tell this ancient and universal story.      

 

3 ½ * of 5