The Fountain (2006)
The Fountain (2006), written and directed by Darren Aronofsky.
High concept or big-think science fiction is difficult to review: you wind up sounding like "Oh wow! Cosmic, man!" and attract the ridicule of those who better appreciate other material.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is respected, although I wonder how often it is watched. The Matrix (1999) and Interstellar (2014) have many fans, but you never hear about Cloud Atlas (2012), then or since.
I cannot review this without giving spoilers.
Aronofsky's carefully constructed SF fable has three intertwined stories:
By order of his Queen, a devoted conquistador searches for the biblical Tree of Life in the Mayan Empire. Drinking of its sap gives immortality and will somehow cure the cancer of the Inquisition that is destroying Spain.
In modern times the Queen is now Izzy, who is writing the conquistador's story as a novel. She has a brain tumor and will not have time to finish the book. We see she has put her own story into her fiction. Her scientist husband Tommy is her hero, obsessively trying to find a cure before it is too late. He can't let go. Strangely, one of the treatments involves an old-growth tree from Central America.
In the far future, Tommy flies through space in a crystal orb, always rising through the heavenly spheres. He has an aged and dying Tree of Life grown from a seed planted on his wife's grave. It contains her soul. By merging with an exploding star (here Xibalbá, the Mayan underworld) he hopes to bring her back. Or perhaps to transcend death and join her.
It is a meditation on how we face death. Tommy the scientist says "Death is a disease" and wants to cure it. The Mayan priest says "Death is the path to awe", speaking for those who expect fulfillment in eternity or at least acceptance in the here and now.
Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz are our recurring leads and I am quite happy with them. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett were originally cast; what would that have been like?
Also in the cast:
Ellen Burstyn: The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), The Exorcist (1973), Requiem for a Dream (2000).
Stephen McHattie: Pontypool (2008).
Mark Margolis seems to have been in a zillion movies and TV shows, perhaps most famously as Hector Salamanca in Breaking Bad.
Cliff Curtis: everything from gangbangers (Training Day (2001)) to Jesus (Risen (2016)).
Notes:
If the story set in the past is Izzy's unfinished manuscript, is the story set in the future Tommy's fiction, his completion of her book, showing how he achieved acceptance and/or transcendence?
I wonder if Izzy was unable to complete her book because she changed while writing it. It began in fear and a desire to conquer death. When she lost her fear and found peace, she needed Tommy to take the story in a new direction.
Those who cannot accept suffer. See Tolkien's portrayal of enduring life in mortal beings: Gollum, the Nazgûl. The narration of The Fellowship of the Ring film says "Men desire power over all else" which is not according to the text. Men desire Life and that causes problems. Húrin's dialogue with Morgoth in The Silmarillion is instructive.
We are told the same story in two ways: when a tree is planted on a grave new life emerges and the dead live on in that way. When you dive into an exploding star your atoms are spread into space to someday became part of new stars and planets with life.
The mythical presentation of human concerns reminded me of the director's Mother! (2017).
Too many match cuts and repeating visual motifs between the story lines to list, although I particularly like the hanging lanterns in the Queen's chambers which look so much like stars in the space voyage.
Xibalbá, the exploding star nebula, is a modified Orion Nebula with adjustments made to the constellation.
Photographed by Matthew Libatique, music by Clint Mansell, both of whom often collaborate with Aronofsky. The Kronos Quartet contributes to the score.
Available on Blu-ray.
Aronofsky recorded a director's commentary which is not on the disc, but which was available online. My link is dead and I can't find another; I think they may all have vanished.
Recorded in 2007, he says:
It took six or seven years to make. All of his films have had development problems.
Knows quite a bit about the Mayans and has visited the sites. Claims the cosmology and focus on Orion is accurate.
The story of the man who planted a tree on the grave of his father: real story, real person and they use his name.
He doesn't mention Brad Pitt or Cate Blanchett. Jackman recommended Rachel Weisz.
He praises all the actors for their commitment. Jackman did his own stunts and was better than the pros.
He resists explaining the film.
