Director/writer Darren Aronofsky, plays with the theme of death in this science fiction romance featuring Hugh Jackman(Tomas, Tommy, Tom) and Rachel Weisz (Isabel, Izzi). The film spans one thousand years and includes three overlapping stories. Sometimes hard to follow the first time around, The Fountain is an average tales of struggling with death and dying told in an extraordinary way.

The first story takes place in 16th century Spain where the Grand Inquisitor has decreed the Spanish Queen Isabella a heretic due to her search for the Tree of Life. Conquistador Tomas, willing to die in order to save his Queen, journeys to the New World in order to find the Tree of Life and prove that Isabella was right and hopefully saving Spain from the Inquisition in the process.

The second story is that of the scientist and takes place in the near present. Tommy is an oncologist attempting to quash brain tumors through animal testing. Motivated by his stricken wife, Izzi, he breaks medical protocol and tests a new compound created from a tree found in Central America. Izzi is in the process of writing a novel about a conquistador in the 16th century and fearing that she may die before finishing it, she asks Tommy to complete it. She also tells him about the Mayan legend of Xibalba and while he is not ready to hear it, she tells him she is ready to face death.

A third story takes place in the distant future as an astronaut, Tom, travels towards a nebula in a sphere shaped spacecraft with a living tree. He is haunted by the visions of Izzi and Isabella while meditating and preparing for his eminent demise.

While similar in its construction to another more critically successful film, The Hours , The Fountain struggles with character identity issues. It is the classic sentiment, “If you don’t care enough about the characters, you simply won’t care about the film.” Even so, Aronofsky does an admirable job of pulling all the stories together in a cohesive and satisfying end. Each man represents a different stage of death and dying; the conquistador who will not accept his fate, the scientist fueled by anger, and the astronaut who comes to acceptance of his destiny.

While intriguing, this is definitely a rent-before-you-buy film as it may not appeal to science fiction fans across the board.

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Writer: Darren Aronofsky

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for for some intense sequences of violent action
some senusality and adult situations.