The Fountain

The Film

Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain is an astounding audio-visual experience. Beautiful to look at and listen to, it works purely on your senses and your emotions. It's not a film to think about too deeply - there isn't a great deal of plot and Aronofsky doesn't have anything particularly profound to say. [...] That seems beside the point however when a film is this sumptuous and moving.

- Kevin O'Reilly at DVD Times

There is a strange deadness in the film, together with a callow self-importance and self-pity which become more stultifying with every minute that passes, factors which are actually made worse by the obvious competence of everyone concerned: so much technical élan is being expended on this narcissistic and flimsy stuff.

- Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian

It's not often that I directly reference someone else's review of a film I'm covering - actually, I have something of a rule against even reading other criticism until I've put my own thoughts down on paper. Generally speaking, I'm wary of allowing other peoples' thoughts into my head before I'm even clear on my own, but, with The Fountain, I decided to make an exception. When the final credit rolled, just over an hour and a half after I'd sat down to watch Darren Aranofsky's "bold 1000-year odyssey" (to quote the marketing blurb), I found myself staring at the screen in flabbergasted silence, unable to believe what I'd just seen, and unable to express any coherent thought beyond the nagging feeling that I'd just lost 95 minutes of my life. So convinced was I that I must simply have been missing something that I immediately went online to peruse a few reviews, hoping that someone would have written something which might offer me some sort of insight into what it was all about. While I've never read a review that has caused me to do a complete U-turn on my opinions on a film, I've certainly come across the odd one or two that have helped me to better appreciate one that already impressed me. Unfortunately, none of the various rave reviews of The Fountain that I've come across have given me anything approaching an understanding of the material, while the critics who responded negatively seem to have been as baffled as me.


The film is nothing if not ambitious in its scope. Essentially purporting to tap into mankind's conception of mortality and the desire for eternal life, it takes place over the course of a millennium, focusing on iterations of the same two characters (played by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz) from three different periods: the past, the present and the future. The material pertaining to the present is the best, perhaps partly because it is the least preposterous, but also because it is the only one that comes close to tapping into what I would consider genuine human emotions. In this section, a young doctor, Tommy Creo (Jackman), seeks desperately to cure his wife Izzy's (Weisz) brain tumour. The same cold indifference that permeates the rest of the film is present here too, but at least it's a situation that most of us could probably relate to. In contrast, the material taking place in the past - 16th century Spain - and the future - a strange, metaphysical reality involving a tree seemingly suspended in space - are too ludicrous and kitschy to be taken particularly seriously. The latter, especially, descends into a completely preposterous muddle, and I'm rather sorry to say that my reaction to what I'm sure was intended to be a highly emotional climax was to laugh.

One gets the sense that all of this means something to Aronofsky, who succeeded in creating a much stronger emotional connection, for me, with his earlier Requiem for a Dream, but none of that meaning makes the transition from his mind to the screen. It ultimately leaves the impression of being an intensely personal project that, for some unknown reason, was entertained by studio executives, to the point of actually being made and released. The film was booed at its Venice Film Festival premiere, and, with its own smug sense of self-importance and refusal to actually provide a meaning to any of the events it depicts, beyond an incredibly nebulous and (to use a word I normally do my best to avoid) pretentious claim to be exploring the nature of mortality, it's not hard to see why. It's certainly an attractive film, well-shot and well-acted, but at the same time it's incredibly distant, and, in this case, strong craftsmanship alone is not enough to carry it. It's simply not as profound as it would like to be.

HD DVD Presentation

Given its visually driven nature, The Fountain, arguably more than most films, demands the highest possible quality of technical presentation. Unfortunately, the results are decidedly underwhelming. Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 (like most of Warner's titles, it has been slightly reformatted from its theatrical 1.85:1), this 1080P VC1-encoded transfer looks to have been heavily filtered and noise reduced, and as a result is about as middle of the road as they come. A lot of the film takes place in low light, and this, combined with the noise reduction, wreaks absolute havoc with the grain structure, causing all manner of distracting smearing. I'm astounded that a title as recent as this is so mushy-looking, and, given that the master can't be any more than a year old, I can only conclude that the studios still have a lot to learn about mastering for high definition. Shadow detail is also poor, although whether this was inherent on the original photography is unclear.

The transfer on the standard definition side, meanwhile, is of course inferior to its high definition counterpart, although, on the standard definition scale would probably actually rank a little higher, given the lower inherent quality of DVD material.

The sound, meanwhile, presented in Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 at 640 Kbps, is solid without being exceptional. It's clear and full-sounding, without anything particularly earth-shattering in the way of multi-channel placement: in all, it's simply a perfectly functional mix. A French dub, as well as English, French and Spanish subtitles, are also included.

Extras

For this combo release, the placement of the bonus materials is a little odd. All of the content is included on the HD DVD side, while the standard definition side contains only the six-part Inside the Fountain: Death and Rebirth documentary and the Peter Parks photography reel. DVD-only viewers aren't missing out on too much, though, as the documentary, which boasts a 50-minute running time, is by far the most substantial of the extras. Aronofsky talks at length about his inspirations and his own writing process, while the film's chequered production process (principle photography was originally due to begin in 2002, before Warner shelved the project). The main focus, however, seems to be on production design, which is somewhat appropriate given that, for the most part, the film tries to get by on its visual elegance alone.

Of the content exclusive to the HD DVD side (which, despite this, is presented in standard definition only), the most significant is the 12-minute The Interview, in which Rachel Weisz asks Hugh Jackman, in the process of having tattoos applied to his arms for an upcoming scene, a series of vaguely philosophical questions about the film. Their banter is enjoyable enough, but it's hard to shake off the impression that this is merely a back-patting exercise for the talents of Aronofsky (Weisz's husband). The VFX demonstration, meanwhile, is watchable enough, but unlikely to appeal to those not interested in the technical side of things, while the cryptically-titled Inside the Director's Mind actually turns out to be a 15-minute storyboard/previz to final film comparison. Finally, the Peter Parks Bonus is essentially a 5-minute screensaver loop showcasing some of the macro-photography shot for the film.

Overall

The Fountain gets a decidedly mediocre HD release that doesn't do its lush visuals justice by any stretch of the imagine. Still, even if it had been graced with the most impressive transfer ever, I would still find it rather difficult to recommend this infuriatingly nonsensical ramble even as demo material. If you like the film, you may find some of the additional bonus materials interesting, but if, like me, you thought it was a pompous load of odd cobblers, there's really nothing here worth bothering about.

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