the movieGOOMBA

Interesting and significant is the director's choice to omit the word 'youth' from the title. In the world of myth and lore, if one drinks from the Fountain of Youth, he/she will remain young and live forever. And always in this tale, there is a man and woman who cannot be together, for they do not agree on what it means to live.

The Fountain chronicles a love story across three life spans; Tomas, the Conquistador, and Queen Isabella, in 16th century Spain, Tommy and Izzie in the present, and in the future, Tom and Isabelle personified into a tree. Stated in simple terms, in all three scenarios, Tom desperately tries to keep Isabelle from what he understands is death. All the Toms search for his own version of the fountain, not concerning himself with youth, but with life. "Death is a disease, it's like any other. And there's a cure. A cure - and I will find it."

Written and directed by the same man who produced the films Requiem For a Dream and Pi, Darren Aronofsky, this is a sure tell about how this film is styled. Abstract and artistic, The Fountain strives to obtain a level of profound understanding, but fails to achieve its goal of portraying an unoriginal idea in an original way. What you get is visual ideas all jumbled together.

Death as a catalyst for new life is a great and old idea, but by emphasizing this through such abstruse imagery, the significance of death and sacrifice is almost trivialized. Interweaving story lines and repeating scenes allude to the idea that life is never ending, but I thought this movie was about new life as a result of death, not just about new life. Death is a heavy theme in this film, but I really felt like something was lost in translation. It was like Tom was the only one carrying the burden of death, and everyone else around him had already found their peace.

The Fountain is more of a visual art piece than a movie. By definition, a movie is "a form of entertainment that enacts a story by sound and a sequence of images giving the illusion of continuous movement," but to me, it was like watching performance art. You don't really get what's going on while you're watching it, and if you tried, you'd fail. All you're left with is a general idea of what it was about; death and new life.