Life, Death and Love in only 96 minutes

There are only a handful of American directors working today that no matter what, produce interesting and quality work despite if the movie works as a whole. Darren Aronofsky is absolutely one of those directors and his third directorial film The Fountain (2006) is one of those films that may not work in its entirety but there is still so much to take away from the film. 

In The Fountain Aronofsky attempts to deal with the meaning of life, death and love. Hugh Jackman plays a research doctor who is attempting to cure brain tumors by experimenting on monkeys as his wife played by Rachel Weiss is dying from a brain tumor. The plot of the film is not nearly as important as the themes Aronofsky is dealing with. I would put Aronofsky up there with Paul Thomas Anderson as the two best directors that can evoke alot of feelings in there audience without having to show very much (a skill which is so rare it tricks a lot of young filmmakers into thinking they can do this too, with poor results). A lot of the emotional resonance has to do with the score, and Aronofsky has found himself one of the best composers working in film today in Clint Mansell (when will this guy get his due credit?). In  The Fountain he gives another haunting, powerful and somber score that ties the many storylines together and lets the film work as one dramatic peace.

Visually the movie is stunning. It uses special effects (or lack there of) evokes thoughts of Kubricks 2001 A Space Odyssey. Aronofsky always presents us with interesting frames and you can tell he is very confident with the shots he choses and never second guesses himself. 

Oscar nominations should have been in order for both Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weis who had to deal with such heavy moments and they projected them beautifully. Both the movie and performances were always on the edge of melodrama but never once crossed over. 

Despite all these ingredients for a masterpiece I don't think Aronofsky ever achieves what it is he is trying to achieve. I don't claim to know exactly what he was trying to say about the nature of life, but I feel like he may have fell short and he most likely lost the audience at some point in this journey. I know there is a masterpiece within this film somewhere, maybe Aronofsky would have been better served with another 4 year delay in the production. 

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