The Fountain - 2006 - Darren Aronofsky

Tommy (Hugh Jackman) and Izzi (Rachel Wiesz) are a couple whose story we follow through a thousand years. Immortality is the goal that pushes Tomas the conquistador to seek the tree of life and retrieve the sap for his queen, Isabel, Tommy is trying to find a cancer cure from a South American tree to save his dying wife, Izzi, and Tom is trying to make it to a dying star to save the dying tree of life. In all three stories Tommy is fighting against death itself.

Mayan mythology is the glue that Aronofsky uses to keep the three stories tied together while the characters a separated by space and time. In the past we have Spanish conquistadors searching for a lost Mayan temple so that they can save the queen from the inquisition. In the modern day story, Izzi is into Mayan mythology and uses it as part of her book. And in the future section, Tommy is floating on a bubble with a tree heading toward a nebula that is the Mayan underworld. The idea of an even repeating love story is interesting, but may have been a little ambitious. Tommy is trying to extend Izzi's life, but he does not seem to be motivated by love of his wife. Tommy wants to beat death at any cost including giving up time with his dying wife in order to do more research. Izzi accepts her fate and makes peace with the world while Tommy franticly experiments on lab monkeys trying to find a cure for Izzi's brain cancer. Love is more than just wanting to keep someone around and we do not get enough of the relationship outside of the quest.

The special effects in the Fountain are wonderful and they show that a creative director does not need CG. I hope that other film makers will take note of Aronofsky's choice to forgo CG in an attempt to give the film a timeless look and feel.
7/10