The Fountain (2006)

by Darren Aronofsky

A Critique

Tommy's love for Izzi is his drive

Six years after Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky surmounts consider-able production problems to give us his third film, The Fountain.  In a golden wave of imagination, Aronofsky creates his complex vision of an immortality myth. Because these myths are timeless and ubiquitous, though varied among cultures, Aronofsky sets The Fountain in three time periods and in three very different places. Hugh Jackman plays Tomas, a conquistador captain in 1500 C.E.; Dr. Tommy Creo, a present day American cancer research surgeon; and a mysterious bald spaceman in 2500 C.E., a sort of celestial Omega Man. Rachel Weisz also plays Queen Isabel (past) and Izzi Creo, Dr. Tom Creo's wife (present).  

Tomas the Conquistador crosses an ocean, searches, and kills to reach the legendary Tree of Life. Dr. Tom Creo consumes himself in his search for a cure to Izzi's of her brain's cancer. The space man, alone in a biosphere spaceship orb--his Valley Forge--cares for and speaks to the orb's centerpiece, a magnificent old-growth tree. The Fountain demands at least two viewings with much contemplation in between.

The decision to write on The Fountain is difficult. I still do not feel I understand the film, but I wanted to give it my best attempt without consulting the writings of others.  Below is that attempt.

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Please see the film before reading further

A test for Tomas

Though our Fountain experience differs greatly from his previous two films, some of Aronofsky's patterns continue in The Fountain. His bold camera angles continue to excite his films. Aronofsky leaves his quick cutting technique behind, and strides boldly into a film not only filled with fantasy, but a film that is almost pure fantasy. Where Requiem repeats visual cues, The Fountain repeats dialogue and scenes (often involving one or more time-shifts.)  Aronofsky also returns Mark Margolis for their third collaboration and Ellen Burstyn for their second. He brings back his producer, much of his crew, composer Clint Mansell (their 3rd film), the Kronos Quartet  (2nd film), and director of photography Matthew Libatique (3rd film).

The story is difficult to decipher upon first viewing. In the story of the past, somehow the Mayans have hidden one of their massive temples at the midpoint among their three biggest temples. Atop the hidden temple, the Tree of Life grows.  Captain Tomas's quest is to find the Tree of Life so that Queen Isabel and Spain might somehow defeat the Roman Catholic Inquisition within its borders. Tomas's reward, besides eternal life, will be Queen Isabel's eternal hand in marriage. She has given him a ring to carry until his quest is complete. Only after drinking the sap is he to wear the ring as a symbol of their union. Tomas defeats the flaming sword, drinks sap from the Tree of Life, then instead of triumph, he turns into flowers that the tree will eventually absorb as fertilizer.  So far, so good, I suppose.

Dr. Tom and Izzie Creo in a museum

Next we're presented Dr. Tommy and Izzi Creo in the present. Tommy's wedding ring disappears after he looks into the nebula from the surgery prep room--goodness knows why the ring disappears or why a nebula does appear. Izzi has written eleven of twelve chapter of a book on the Mayan creation myth that starts in Spain. The story will end in the Orion constellation's fictitious golden star ("nebula, really") that the Mayans called Xibalba. After Izzi dies, Tommy, with the help of a sample from the ficti-tious natul tortuosa "that tree in Central America," develops the "cure for death," the fountain of youth. We do not see the cure come, but we know it is on its way. After the funeral, Tommy plants a sweetgum ball on Izzi's grave. We do not see it happen, but from the museum scene, we know the tree will grow and absorb Izzi.

Tommy with tree, in spaceship

Last is the future third of the film.  The mysterious bald man is actually Dr. Tommy Creo 500 years into the future. We know this from his memories / hallucinations of Izzi, from the quill from Izzi that he's kept 500 years, and from his original ring tattoo. Tommy probably gets his memories of Queen Isabel, however, from having taken a medicine created from the Tree of Life that consumed Tomas. The tree in the spaceship, with its bark like the neck hair of Izzi, is the American Sweetgum tree that grew over and around Izzi's grave. It is not just the essence of Izzi. To Tommy, that tree and Izzi are one and the same. Tommy has journeyed from earth in his spherical bubble of a spaceship to tend and transport the tree (Izzi) and himself to the Golden Nebula in Orion, Xibalba. The nebula surrounds a dying star that, upon its supernova, will give birth to more stars. Though immortal, Tommy and Izzi will be killed upon arrival to their destination, together forever. "Death turns all to ash, thus, death frees every soul."

The film, or my interpretation of it,  is derailed as soon as future Tommy reaches 1000 years to the past to retrieve the ring. Aronofsky may have derailed it even earlier when the Mayan guard with the flaming sword surrenders to Tomas due to a vision, or due to somehow sensing that Tomas is future Tommy.  Aron-ofsky has violated Roger Ebert's "Mysterious Object Antecedents Myth." He describes is as follows,

Whenever a movie involves time travel, there will always be an object that travels between the past and future without ever having actually come from anywhere. Example: in the beginning of SOMEWHERE IN TIME, an old Jane Seymour gives the young Christopher Reeve a pocket watch. He travels back in time to find her, taking the watch with him, and accidentally leaves it there. She keeps it, grows old, and—voilà—the cycle repeats itself. But where did the pocket watch come from in the first place?

   

Except this mysterious object is not an object, but a character that has come from nowhere:  future Tommy. Future Tommy does not exist without Tomas becoming part of the tree. But Tomas does not get to the tree without the aid of future Tommy.

The final 15 minutes will confuse and confound the most open-minded viewers--at least the ones whose minds are not so wide open that their brains have fallen out--and the rare soul who interprets the film as Aronofsky had intended. Aronofsky has made a creative film, shimmering with beauty, that is ultimately jarred free of logic's moorings and forever obscures any wisdom or story it was hoping to tell.  

To Mr. Aronofsky I say, "Please, leave me alone.  I know how it ends."

Trailer for The Fountain