Hidden Movie Gem: “The Fountain”
Today’s Hidden Movie Gem guest post comes from Mark Walker
Movie Title: The Fountain
Year: 2006
Screenplay: Darren Aronoskfy
Story: Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel
Cast: Hugh Jackman — Tomas/Tommy/Tom Creo, Rachel Weisz — Isabel/Izzi
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Plot Summary: Three stories — one each from the past, present, and future — about men in pursuit of eternity with their love. A conquistador in Mayan country searches for the tree of life to free his captive queen; a medical researcher, working with various trees, looks for a cure that will save his dying wife; a space traveler, traveling with an aged tree encapsulated within a bubble, moves toward a dying star that’s wrapped in a nebula; he seeks eternity with his love. The stories intersect and parallel; the quests fail and succeed.
Why I Think This Movie Is A Hidden Gem: On release, Aronofsky’s “The Fountain” met with mixed reviews, being both lauded as a work of genius and derided for being an incomprehensible mess. Whatever your first impression of the film, there is so much more to it than a complicated plot and confusing narrative. In actuality, the film’s story is relatively simple, but its strengths lie in its openness to interpretation; a true piece of artwork that is begging to be understood in different ways by different people. If you search the internet you will find a multitude of varying and, sometimes, conflicting readings of its story. However, the one thing that the reviews and online commentators all talk about are the themes and emotional wallop of the story. You may not understand the narrative, but the emotions thrown at you during its brief running time are powerful and not instantly forgettable. This is another strength of the film. This isn’t a fire and forget car-park movie, you will be thinking about it long after the credits roll. And, frustrated as you may be about the narrative, you will still have been taken on an emotional journey with Tommy and Izzi.
My Favorite Moment In The Movie: In the film, Izzi recounts to Tommy the Mayan legend of Xibalba, which deals with the journey of the spirit after death. The Mayan guide who told her the story recounts the tale of his father who died but who was “reborn” through a tree planted on his grave, into which he “grew” and became at one with the universe, his spirit growing up and out of the branches.
At the end of the film, as Tommy struggles to come to terms with Izzi’s death, he returns to her grave and plants a seed over it. This relates to him finishing the story in Izzi’s book, but also his move away from the science the failed him , highlighting his desperation to “save” Izzi — it represents the strength of his love for her.
My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie: In the last minutes of the film, when he has come to terms with Izzi’s death, accepting that he was too late to save her, but realizing their connection, the Tom from the future says:
“All these years, all these memories, there was you. You pull me through time.”
It sums the film up in a nutshell, the strength of the love and the relationship, everlasting and supportive even in death. Within the context of the film it is very powerful writing and makes me well up just reading it now!
Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie: The key things with The Fountain are the connections between the three story threads that cleverly link the themes of the over-arching story. The three threads in the film are tightly wound together, although this may not be fully apparent on first viewing.
The main thread has Tommy Creo as a research scientist searching for a cure for his wife’s cancer using organic compounds taken from the rain forest. The second thread follows a Conquistador, Tomas, searching for the Tree of Life from the Book of Genesis. His quest will save his love, the Queen of Spain, who is threatened by the Inquisition. The third thread follows, Tom, an apparent traveller in space (and perhaps time) delivering a tree (symbolic of Izzi) to Xibalba a dying star that represents the underworld in Mayan mythology and a form of rebirth.
At first this may seem confusing but, after time, it becomes clear that there is sense in the madness. The three story threads are linked in so many ways, that it is clear that they are dealing with the same characters, just in different realities. There are also so many connections that it is impossible to list them all here, but look for them in the film, they are there…and when you find them another little light comes on. I viewed the film for the fourth time to write this and still found more.
Some of the main links relate to the book Izzi is writing about the Conquistador as a reflection of her and Tommy’s “present-day” existence. For example, the Conquistador is searching for the tree of life, to save his Queen from the Inquisitor who represents Izzi’s cancer in the modern day story. Tomas’ reference to the Inquisitor as needing to be “cut out” to save his Queen is clearly a parallel
And the “future” section is heavy on the metaphor for Tommy being asked (in the present day) to finish Izzi’s book, despite claiming to not know how. The future sections can be seen as a representation of his attempt to finish the book based on the legends of Xibalba, the gateway to the Mayan underworld and reincarnation that he is travelling towards with the tree that represents Izzi in the future. This is linked back to his planting of the seed in the scene mentioned above. All of which is leading to closure for Tommy in the present day and an acceptance of death and moving on. As Hugh Jackman says in an interview on the Blu Ray, you have to learn to deal with death before you can move on and, in the words of the Director of Photography, it is about moving, “…from the darkness to the light…”.
There are themes of Love and Loyalty, Death, Rebirth and Hope, throughout the film weaving in and out of each story thread and the whole film. Ultimately, for me, this is a story about the power of love and relationships and the struggle to deal with them when they end. Whether you interpret all the stories to be real, or metaphors, or believe that time travel is involved is less important than the emotions that are so well played out in the film. More connections and call-backs reveal themselves on repeat viewing so that the viewer can go from thinking they have just seen a mish-mash of confused, and confusing, ideas, to realising that this is actually a well thought-out and crafted story.
“Together we will live forever.”
The Fountain can be confusing on first viewing but the story threads are well developed and closely linked, serving up powerful, primal themes that resonate with the viewer long after the film has ended. And this is what we are all aiming for isn’t it? A film needs to take the audience on a journey that they can relate to… and what is more powerful and universal than love?
And that is why I think it is a Hidden Gem!
Movie Trailer:
Thanks, Jonathan! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!
Tomorrow: Another Hidden Movie Gem!
Note: We filled up the month of October, so I don’t need any more guest posts. Thanks to everyone who participated!