Darren Aronofsky‘s The Fountain had some rough going at the Venice Film Festival. Somebody wrote that it’s a yea-nay, hot-or-cold proposition, so presumably others will come along who felt as I did after catching it in San Diego in late July.
I called it “the most beautiful and best-crafted cosmic head-trip movie since I don’t know what. 2001: A Space Odyssey? Fight Club? The first half of Altered States?” And I said that “for a movie with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz playing three characters each in three different eras (the 1500s, the present and the 24th Century), it’s remarkably easy to sort through and make sense of.
“You have to let The Fountain seep into you like any great book or perfectly brewed cup of tea, and you have to seep yourself into it also, but it’s an extraordinary place to go to and then return from….like a planet unto itself. It’s one of those films that takes a little seasoning to appreciate. Anyone who’s ever tripped on anything will definitely respond, mature educated types will like it more than typical 20-something hormonals, and women will probably like it more than guys who watch football and smoke cigars and drive SUVs.”