the fountain

so on this, the first evening of my temporary academic reprieve, i thought to myself, perhaps i’ll just watch a couple movies and go to bed early … apparently instead, i will blog about movies instead, cause you know i don’t see my computer enough during the work day. 🙂

this weekend, my sister came to visit, see the pathetically short entry, post before last, and brought The Fountain with her. i’m glad she did. it was interesting, which isn’t really meant to be a euphemism for anything (as, sadly, it so often can be… see: “what do you think of my new haircut?” “wow, it’s really interesting!”). it really was interesting. i don’t know if i would say i liked it, exactly – without any caveats – but it was thought-provoking, and really beautiful to look at.

the premise, as it penetrated this brain of mine, was this. a man (doctor, researcher) frantically tries to find a cure for the tumor which is killing his wife. interwoven, a story of a conquistador who travels to a Mayan city in Guatemala to find the Tree of Life for Queen Isabella of Spain; and interludes with the same man, only bald and futuristic, in a (really cool looking) biosphere with only a giant, gnarled tree, and enough to keep that alive (water, etc.) hurtling through space, presumably in the future.

we weren’t sure what the heck was going on, on a larger level. who was who? were they all the same people? the wife, portrayed by Rachel Weisz (who i really like), in the present time was writing a manuscript (eponymously titled to the film) about the Spanish plot, so was that just the story she made up? the future guy (lead actor, Hugh Jackman) seemed like he might really be the present guy …

i can say this: good performances by all. kind of wrenching. visually, stunning, esp. the future scenes. also it seems that Darren Aronofsky, the director, doesn’t like CGI, so a surprising amount of things were actually, somehow, created in other ways. (watch the DVD extra if you rent it). thought provoking. a bit abstract, but then, i gather, Aronofsky is that sort of guy.