The Frame

Critics were split on Darren Aronofsky’s latest dreamscape of a film; some liked it, but several thought it was incomprehensible, and thus bad. I’m not sure why “incomprehensible” is always a negative judgment, incidentally, but that’s a different issue, because The Fountain isn’t incomprehensible. It’s about a man whose wife is dying, and he’s working overtime on experimental treatments (he’s a research doctor) to try to find a way to save her. In parallel stories, he’s a conquistador searching for the Fountain of Youth, and a space traveler in a bubble with a single tree. Exactly how connected you take the three stories to be (are they only metaphorically connected, are they intersecting parallel universes, or is the man a time traveler) isn’t ultimately the point–the point is the nature of love. Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz are both great, and the film is totally, mesmerizingly beautiful.
Well Above Average