Starring: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
One reoccurring element in the films of Darren Aronofsky it is that main characters are driven and often destroyed by obsessions. His debut film Pi featured mathematician obsessed by logical patterns.
Requiem for a Dream is about the euphoria found in drug use and the obsessive addictions they lead to.
The Fountain too features a protagonist struggling with an obsession, one that is perhaps the universal of all.
The Fountain is famously ambitious in its presentation, in the far future, an immortal man travels to a dying star where he hopes his wife will be reborn. Along the way, he remembers what are generally considered to be the memories of his past self. In these flashbacks we see the story of Tommy, a man trying to save his wife, the beloved one, Izzi from dying by finding a cure for her terminal illness.
In the third story, we are presented with Izzi's unfinished book The Fountain, which tells the tale of Spanish conquistador in the 16th century on an expedition to find the Tree of Life.
These storylines however aren't neatly separated by times as the original trailer suggested, but rather they flow into each other, they are intertwined to the point where acts in one storyline even seem to affect the outcomes of another.
This is the most obvious in the first story, where future Tommy saves the conquistador and pushes his quest forward, but consider also how Tommy discovers what would be his immortality formula through a revelation caused by what appears to be a divine intervention.
It is this kind of interventions between the stories that complicates interpreting the actual plot of the film.
The choice to go with Izzi or continue his work is presented here as a distant memory, one that Tommy isn't ready to face.
Again, how and when this story unfolds depends on your interpretation of the different storylines. If you interpret the stories in literal terms, we're witnessing the tragic memories of an immortal man in the distant future. But there are some interpretations that approach this future storyline as purely metaphorical, a representation of Tommy's subconscious as he struggles with his loss of wife. Either way, I can't think of a better image of grief than a man drifting alone in a timeless darkness.
The vision of his wife keeps haunting him, urging him to listen, and finally accepts invitation.
We are brought book to the choice, go with izzi, or go to work. While the lighting an religious imagery already hints at what choice should be made.. Tommy heads the other way, and so will we.
Witnessing her husband's growing obsession, Izzi, probably both out of love and frustration, urges him to read her book about the conquistador named Tomas, who is trying to save his queen from the invading inquisitor.
A not too subtle metaphor for Izzi's experience with illness slowly spreading inside her body, and the husband who seems half world away to complete an impossible task.
The book comes to an abrupt ending when Tomas finds hidden temple containing the Tree of Life, and is struck by its guardian.
Once again, portrays Tommy's view of death as something ugly, something that has to be denied and evaded at all cost despite knowing the effort would ultimately be pointless.
This is exactly where Izzi differentiates herself from Tommy. Unlike Tommy, Izzi comes to terms with her mortality by accepting her life as small piece in the ongoing process of creation, which has allowed her to live in the present where she more than anything, longs for Tommy to just be with her.
In the film, her worldview is inspired by ancient Mayan philosophy, but also clearly includes Eastern influences. It's this almost Stoic acceptance that freed her from her mental prison, which is also made clear by the fact that she wants Tommy to finish her book, which not only serves a way to help, Tommy face his own mortality, but also a token of her own willingness to leave things unfinished, to let go her attachments and be fully present in the current moment, whatever it may bring.
And this brings as to the end of Tommy's journey. As he enters Shibalba, he finally acknowledges the truth that Izzi was trying to show him, that death is not a force of evil, it's not some distant abstraction, it's presence that surrounds us always, from beginning to end, like golden nebula looming over our lives even the most mundane moments.
In a final convergence of the storylines, we are once again brought back to the choice, but this time Tommy embarks on a different path and chooses to be with Izzi instead. Now realizing that his pursuit for immortality will not make him whole, that will only leave him detached, bringing nothing but suffering and despair, Izzi's book is given a new ending in which conquistador passes the guardian, drinks the sap from Tree of Life, and is subsequently killed by new life bursting from his body.
Again, a not too subtle metaphor for Tommy letting go of his obsession and allowing for something new, something more peaceful to take its place.
It's not exactly a grand revelation, but The Fountain was never really about that. As one reviewer points out the story is not about unlocking the secrets of the universe, it's about learning to live without them. But I think more importantly it's an invitation to live our lives more consciously and in that sense, it's a journey that relates to all of us. A journey about how we can become so obsessed with our mental abstraction that we forget to experience what it is actually happening.
We see what Tommy learns at the end. Our lives are brief and a large extent at the mercy of forces beyond our control.
The Fountain shows how easily we fool ourselves into believing we have unlimited time, until we realize that we don't. It makes us aware all the time that was given us; a gift that we perhaps could have been more thankful of, that we should have accepted with hands instead of letting ourselves be distracted by everything else, that we should always say "yes" to.
0 Comments