The Fountain (2006)
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 196
Fresh: 100 | Rotten: 96
The Fountain -- a movie about metaphysics, universal patterns, Biblical symbolism, and boundless love spread across one thousand years -- is visually rich but suffers from its own unfocused ambitions.
Average Rating: 4.4/10
Critic Reviews: 47
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 35
The Fountain -- a movie about metaphysics, universal patterns, Biblical symbolism, and boundless love spread across one thousand years -- is visually rich but suffers from its own unfocused ambitions.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 258,540
Movie Info
Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky switches gears from drug-induced urban malaise to abstract science fiction with this time-tripping symbolic tale of a man's thousand-year quest to save the woman he loves. Moving between representational stories and images, this meditation on life and death focuses on the concept of the mythical Tree of Life that is said to bestow immortality to all who drink of its sap. In one of the film's allegorical timelines, a 16th century Spanish conquistador
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Cast
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Hugh Jackman
Tomas/Tommy/Tom Creo -
Rachel Weisz
Isabel/Izzi Creo -
Ellen Burstyn
Dr Lillian Guzetti -
Mark Margolis
Father Avila -
Stephen McHattie
Grand Inquisitor Sil... -
Fernando Hernandez
Lord of Xibalba -
Cliff Curtis
Captain Ariel -
Sean Patrick Thomas
Antonio -
Donna Murphy
Betty -
Ethan Suplee
Manny -
Richard McMillan
Henry -
Lorne Brass
Dr. Alan Lipper -
Abraham Aronofsky
Lab Technician -
Renee Asofsky
Lab Technician -
Anish Majumdar
Dr. Spencer -
Janique Kearns
Young Nurse -
Boyd Banks
Dominican Monk -
Alexandre Bisping
Foot Soldier Del Tor... -
Kevin Kelsall
Foot Soldier Rivera -
Patricia Dal
Foot Soldier Gallean... -
Marcello Bezina
Foot Soldier Borjes -
Hugo Salvador Gutier...
Mayan Warrior -
Eric Carmelo Valenzu...
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Elfego Vinicio Pena ...
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Jose Maria Tol Chan
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Benjamin Panjoj Cort...
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Juan Salvador Lares
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Jose Alfredo Conoz M...
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Guatemaya Chicua
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Tomas Tol Nix
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Luis Alfredo Yac Noj
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Mateo Martin Perez
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Edson Vasquez Pixaba...
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Marvin Leonardo Raxt...
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Tomas Morales Sacqui...
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Santos Ajic Sapon
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Xaijil Sicajan
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Manuel Antonio Salva...
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Tomas Salvador Tol
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Tomas Augustin Canil...
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Carlos Enrique Ramos...
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Octavio Guadelupe Za...
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Xitamul
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Yolanda
Donovan -
Bianca Cody Murphy
Lab Support Primate -
Diget
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Granny
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The Fountain Trailer & Photos
All Critics (197) | Top Critics (47) | Fresh (100) | Rotten (96) | DVD (30)
I will concede the film is not a great success. Too many screens of blinding lights. Too many transitions for their own sake. Abrupt changes of tone.
Top CriticLurches on a thin line between hyper-ornate space oddity and extended perfume advert.
The Fountain is the story of a gifted artist who dared to reach for the stars and paid for his ambition with a really stupid movie.
Mr. Aronofsky's outlook on life remains too constantly pessimistic for my taste, and too completely joyless as well.
This is one of the worst movies of the year.
The movie may have significant truths to impart, although I have my doubts, but it feels too inexperienced, too unworldly, to have earned the right to them.
The enormous, and sometimes inspired, visual arc of Aronofsky's reach sadly exceeds his narrative's basic grasp.
Visual alchemist Darren Aronofsky's most personal work is a double helix of love and loss - death entwined with life as existence's only reliable truths. It offers a transfixing merger of biological imperatives and musings on creativity and tragedy.
It's difficult to recall another American film that, in pursuing a passionate and personal vision, goes so maddeningly, uproariously wrong.
A metaphysical muddle.
The continuous sense of deeply felt discovery tempers the movie's overreaching pretentiousness
You can judge for yourself whether a money shot of semenesque tree-sap is a proper payoff, but the movie is at least texturally rich, tonally consistent (brooding, always) and much fussed over by its maker.
This film raises an interesting question: How far is a viewer willing to follow a talented filmmaker down a rabbit hole, when it becomes clear that said filmmaker has lost his way?
It's a simple story told with Zen directness, its fingers deep in the age-old questions, its eyes and ears wide open to the sensual potential of cinema.
So simple, so elaborate, and yet so utterly brilliant...
Despite its flaws, it's still worth watching.
Seldom in cinema has eschatology been treated with such intelligence, or inspired such aching awe.
Yes, The Fountain is ridiculous, arguably pretentious, pining for your attention like a sixth grade emo kid. And I love it to pieces.
If one is to be left with something in the end, it is the realization that its creator is fully in love with not just the result of his art, but the very happening of it.
It will no doubt find itself aging quite well, appreciated long after its (inevitably short) theatrical run.
[I]ntrigues me intellectually, [but] it doesn't make me feel anything... But it's one of the more interesting cinematic failures I've ever seen.
Beautiful and profoundly moving...This is a film I want to see several more times.
...more a middling entry in the message/sci-fi/fantasy genre than the groundbreaking venture its ponderous tone would lead us to believe.
There are hints of David Lynch's similarly confusing Mulholland Drive and the marvellously bonkers ending of Stanley Kubrick's classic 2001: A Space Odyssey that will repel many more viewers than attract.
Bonkers, adventurous, silly, ambitious, charming, foolish; it's all those things and it'll be gone in a week. But it's not mainstream Bore-o fare, and for that it should be celebrated.
Audience Reviews for The Fountain
There is a lot to like here. It's not quite a bad film, just a deeply flawed one. "Interesting failure" I think is a good way to put it. Or maybe slight failure. The concept is cool, but the plotting, script, and execution are where the issues are. Also, it's okay to be a little obscure and make people have to think, but that's not the case here. This is just confusing and scattered.
The visuals (and preference for camera tricks and practicals over tons of CGI) are amazing. They're are beautiful, and the camera work is likewise gorgeous. The performances are also pretty good, especially since the leads do double and triple duty. I did like the formal techniques and the use odd match cuts and recurring motifs...that's all good, but like I said, the concept and execution are rough.
I did find the film engaging, and got something out of it, even if it's really confusing. As I said, this is a slight failure, but it's interesting, and has merits, so while it isn't quite a real success, there's enough good here to warrant a viewing.
Super Reviewer
Movies Like The Fountain
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- Tomas/Tommy/Tom Creo: All these years, all these memories, there was you. You pulled me through time.
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- Lab Support Primate: Through telepathy: why do you humans operate on my brain? It causes much stress for me.
- Tomas/Tommy/Tom Creo: Because we humans have lost our sense of purpose, so much that we must try and find it in other intities, no matter how primitive they may be.
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- Isabel/Izzi Creo: I will not die, not here, not now, never...
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- Tomas/Tommy/Tom Creo: Death is a disease, it's like any other. And there's a cure. A cure - and I will find it.
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- Tomas/Tommy/Tom Creo: There's been progress at work...
- Isabel/Izzi Creo: [laughs] My conquistador! Always conquering...
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- Lord of Xibalba: Death is the road to awe.
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But seriously folks - after just one viewing - i'm just .. wow - huh?! Watching the film, I was wildly applauding Aronofsky's superballsy audacious vision while simultaneously cringing at his simplistic sentimentality.
2001 + What the Bleep Do We Know + dimestore romance + any episode of E.R. = wtf?
For what it's worth - i thought Hugh Jackman was great - perhaps the only tangible revelation of the film.