What if someone blends together heavyweight elements like science fiction and the story of eternal love? Will it work? Elements of completely polar positions in both genre and real life? Audience might find themselves stirring from this question and this film might evoke conversations after viewing but The Fountain doesn't deserve to be asked. It's deserved to be felt.

So comes Darren Aronofsky's highly-ambitious, almost far-reaching third film since his debut Pi and Requiem For A Dream, in which he garnered Best Director Prize from Cannes. Yes, it's pretentious and psychologically befuddling, and unlike his former films, The Fountain was booed in Cannes last year and people called it "rubbish work of absurdity".

But first, let us consider that The Fountain is a kind of film that is very hard to deconstruct. However, we are presented by a ubiquitous element: love. The Fountain is, and will always be, a love story. It's about an epic odyssey of a man who seeks for the Tree of Life (or The Fountain of Youth) to bring eternal life to the one he loves, spanning three different time periods. In 16th century Spain, Tomas (Hugh Jackman), a Conquistador, was sent into the South American jungles to find the hidden pyramid, which also conceals the Tree of Life, by the lost Mayan tribe in order to save the reign of Queen Isabella from the harsh Inquisition. In the recent time story, Tommy, a doctor, becomes obsessed to find a cure for his dying wife, Izzi, who has a severe cancer with tumours and is writing a book in which she calls The Fountain. The last and the final story was set in 26th century where Tom, an astronaut, explores the outer space in a bubble, consisting of the Tree of Life and the memories that he brings with him.These three stories were brilliantly constructed in a way that the scenes could cut both slowly and hastily to provide a sense of continuity. While some may find it confusing, for me, I find it inspiring. The Fountain, as I had said, is a film that deserves to be experienced, not criticised. If people are talking that it's "nonsensical or rubbish", do they mean that Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was also "nonsensical or rubbish" as well? 2001: A Space Odyssey feels like The Fountain's progenitor, and it is inevitable for people to compare it because these two films contain a bit of similarity but of different themes. While 2001 glides into man's conquest of evolution, The Fountain explores into the real (and thr surreal) depths of eternal, pure, self-sacrificing love.

Darren Aronofsky, without a doubt, crafted one of the year's best offerings. It's thought-provoking, astounding, as well emotionally involving. No doubt also that it belongs to the state of art in high order. Bringing breathtaking visuals using breakthrough microbiological photography by British photographer Peter Parks. They used spectacular images from the lenses of microscopes, showing chemical reactions and biological lifeforms evolving. While most of the film delves into the visceral, grandiose filmmaking, it must be put in mind that most of the scenes too depend so much on the faces of the actors. Kudos to Hugh Jackman for being so undeniably handsome and to Rachel Weisz for being so charismatically beautiful. Aside from their faces that grab cameras to flash, they are not just pretty faces. Although Rachel Weisz had already proven herself that she could act (and grab an Oscar statuette as well, winning Best Supporting Actress for last year's The Constant Gardener), it's Hugh Jackman that gave the notch-up surprises. Boy, this man can act. This is so far his most accomplished work, and when I say heavy drama, tears are on the loose. There so much depth in his character than what we could see in the surface; the greatest thing an actor could give to his character, a sense of realism and depth. In Tomas, he was a man who would fight and conquer battles in order to save his queen and fulfill his promise of saving Spain and become her Adam, and her, Eve to him in return. In Tommy, he's a doctor in the brink of losing his grasp, compulsively searching for a treatment for a disease, and also a husband who's greatest fear is to lose his wife. In Tom, he's an astronaut (or a diseased person, never explained), who's exploring the space (in which believe inner space, not outer) and the state of heaven, the divine truth, saving his own soul. This was where most of the spiritual thing heavily relies on.

It may be a psychological, spiritual, or emotional journey watching The Fountain - but we must try not to look too much closer to it and divide things. Instead, just like looking a big canvas that's painted of different colours and patterns, we must step back to see the bigger picture. It's a monumental story about undying love. As what Izzi said, and probably one of the best lines of the film, "Death is the road to awe", death is never the end of everything. It's a start of a promise. It also makes us realise that life is too fleeting to live that we must cherish and live it to the fullest. One of the best moments of the film was repeated over and over again, showing Izzi in her winter clothes, inviting Tommy to go out into the snow and "Take a walk with me", she said. But he refused and insisted that he's busy. Such a simple line, a request, a favor. It never cost anything, yet it means everything.

The Fountain taught me something about how to watch films. It helped me to understand that some films need a touch of human to understand its message. It also helped me to realise that too much deconstructing and analysing details might be too irrelevant, what we don't know is that what bigger picture we might be missing. Watch this film. Let your brain move, not think, but let it flow first with the film. Glide in your inner space. Let that thing that beats inside of you to feel, and it will help you understand that love, in any cost, with its passion and withstanding courage, will conquer anything, even between the lines of immortality and death.


Rating: A