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What most unites Aronofsky’s three features
is their distinct visual styles. Even people who hate this movie (and there
will be some) will marvel at its stunning visuals, which look computer
generated but mostly weren’t. Most prominent are the future segments, which, I learned from reading, are supposed to be in the 26th-century but could just as well be in
Aronofsky’s vision of heaven, or some fantasy world. A unique chemical process
is responsible for many of these images, many of which show a tree that looks
like copper with swirling branches. Abandoning the quick editing style that was
prominent in Requiem for a Dream, Aronofsky induces feelings of calmness
here. The scenes in the 16th century are mostly dark and dirty, the ones in the
present are insular and sedate, and the future ones are simply other-worldly.
The actors are able to successfully tackle taking on very different
personalities in the different parts, and also look different. Weisz is a regal
queen in one part and a fragile writer in another. The scenes of her and
Jackman together in the present-day setting are tender and intimate. (Weisz
looks like she isn’t wearing makeup.)
- For me this didn’t
quite work. I had the same feeling about it as π, which
I admired for its heady mixture of science and philosophy but thought was too
incoherent to warm to. I don’t necessarily want to be told what to think about
a movie, but it’d be nice to know what the filmmaker was thinking. The idea of
the movie could be that the actors are reincarnated, that they are
metaphorically able to live forever, or something else, but there is too much
that seems arbitrary about how the different parts of the movie fit together,
and too much that seems extraneous. It’s hard to say why I didn’t like this
movie more, but I think I just was not able to fit everything together in a
satisfying way. There’s a lot of repeated motifs that also may make the movie
seem slow for a lot of people.
=
** I heard a woman say, “I’m glad this was
free,” as I walked out of the screening, and I think a lot of people will share
her feeling. At the same time, I think a certain type of person will want to
watch The Fountain again and theorize about what it means. Those who
enjoyed the Matrix trilogy but thought it could have done without all of
those action scenes, for example, may find much that’s intriguing. People of
certain types of spiritual beliefs may find the movie a beautiful reflection of
them. I’m a more literal-minded person and probably would have liked The
Fountain better if it was a more straightforward science fiction film, set
in the present day, about a guy trying to prevent aging.
viewed at PFS screening
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