Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain is a film that has been long in the making. Bringing this existential epic from script to screen took more than six years and was a personal obsession for the director who launched his career with Pi at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998. Brad Pitt was so moved by the screenplay, he broke down and cried after getting to page 40 when he called Aronofsky to say that he was definitely “in.”

After scheduling conflicts and delays, Pitt was out and the movie in limbo. With the fate of the film unknown, Warner Bros. enticed the director with other projects to helm including Batman, but Aronofsky remained steadfast in his intention to make The Fountain. Once imagined as a nearly $100 million dollar epic spanning thousands of years, Aronofsky downsized the project to a modest $35 million dollar studio film to get it to the screen—Hugh Jackman came aboard to star alongside Aronofsky’s love in real-life Rachel Weisz and the film was a “go.” The kind of struggle to get a film as unclassifiable as this one to the screen always says something about the creative minds who will not give up on bringing their ideas into reality. And the reactions, as one might expect, have been mixed. (Read on, but be warned—SPOILER: You will die.)


...what is most interesting is not the “story” but the subtext...

Perhaps you’ve read reviews that have attempted to explain the movie’s plot describing it as “...three parallel stories about love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of existence as told through the odyssey taken on by one man in his thousand-year struggle to save the woman he loves.” Sure, it’s about that and much more. But taking a step back from the surface level story synopsis put forth by the studio marketing department, what is most interesting is not the “story” but the subtext and, more importantly, the reactions to the journey by viewers. Some say the film is difficult to understand as Aronofsky tells his non-linear story, sometimes bouncing between the three time periods within the same scene, but for me, it worked. It’s also the kind of movie that requires a second viewing to get the most out of it. The last movie that I felt required this attention was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind—a movie whose story unfolds backwards.


Aronofsky tells his non-linear story, sometimes bouncing between the three time periods within the same scene...

For myself, I was moved. Put simply, the film is about the acceptance of death and reaching a place where one can think of death as an act of creation, not destruction. Tomas/Tommy/Bald-Future-Yoga-Man (Hugh Jackman) will not accept death and works tirelessly in all three parallel stories to conquer it. Isabel/Izzi/Tree-Woman (Rachel Weisz) has come to terms with death as she accepts her own. We experience the film through the eyes of Tom as he finally learns to accept his own death, becoming one with the universe. It’s somber, odd, engaging, beautiful, and it’s the one film I’ve seen this year that moved me to tears. Call me a sap, but it wasn’t just the experience, but that so rarely does a film as unique as this one come along. But how could anyone be surprised coming from the director behind Pi and Requiem for a Dream?

And my interpretation of the film is the right one…for me. While we all have different reactions to movies based on our experiences, The Fountain is one of those rare movies that acts as a cinematic Rorschach test saying volumes about the individual based on their response. And the experience and each individuals’ reactions to it, no matter how vastly different, are all completely valid.


It's not about medical experiments, conquistadors, life-giving trees or monkeys.

When I discuss movies with friends and colleagues, there’s a consensus measurable on a scale of brilliant to crap, and there is generally agreement about where most films fall on this scale. But The Fountain transcends this as the reactions are so across the board, more than any other film in recent memory. Some say they “love it” while others say they “hate it.” I’m most interested in the opinions of those who disliked it. A good friend well-versed in film was captivated by the imagery but was confused by the subplot involving the use of experimental compounds on monkeys. That plot thread completely threw him off the underlying themes. He was as confounded as the character of Tommy in the film—so driven in his work-life that he fails to notice the importance of life’s moments in the present. And that reaction is completely valid. Having seen The Fountain more than four times now (yes, I get that way when I see a film I truly love) I imagine that my own feelings about it will alter as I see it differently based on where I’m at in my own spiritual growth.


Put simply, the film is about the acceptance of death...

So, I hope that others will be open to experiencing The Fountain multiple times as they struggle to unravel the message(s) they discover for themselves. The benefit is that, along the way, you may find yourself gaining more than just an understanding of a movie, but of yourself.

Gore gone.

Chris_Gore is an author, a filmmaker, the creator of Film Threat, and plans to see The Fountain again.