The Fountain (2006)

Trailers:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/thefountain/

"It's a Psalm: It sounds great, it looks beautiful, and it means a lot! "

Those are the words I would use if a press asked me about how I thought about the highly anticipated movie "The Fountain." Director, described as the greatest living American director by Warren iterates, who was the host of this screening event, took a long period of time to complete this work after the previously welcomed Requiem for a Dream (2000). He said he had gone to many Central American countries for research on an ancient Mayan myth and I could see that clearly. Every single part of the film was so well-prepared like how he mixed up his various ideas about death as rebirth. There were some areas that were just outstanding such as music, sound, lighting, framing, and a powerful message to tell.

The multi-dimensional story line began with a Spanish conquistador Thomas (Hugh Jackman) who was set onto his quest to search for the great mystery of the fountain of youth by the Queen of Spain (Rachel Weisz), a hard working scientist (Jackman) who worked so hard on developing a cure to save his lover (Weisz) 's life, and a future astronaut (Jackman) traveled far beyond galaxy to a place he and his loved one (Weisz) believed where death and life were one.

"Our bodies are prisons for our souls. All flesh decays. Death turns all to ash. And thus death frees every soul. "

In the 1500 story, the Church was outrageous because Spain discovered the secret of the Mayan legend of the fountain of youth, or to say the Christian mystery of the tree of life. Therefore, the Church wished to take control of Spain before the secret-that men can actually live forever, was revealed to the world. The queen then hand picked Thomas because of his loyalty to Spain and its queen and it was in the scene too that the director created the most memorable script line of the movie- "When you come back, I shall be your Eve, together we will live forever." During this small "fellowship of the tree"'s staying in the Mayan jungles, patience of its members was outrun by the father or the priest's being unable to find the temple, where the tree was. But by a mythic map on the dagger (you'll understand what I am talking about after watching the film.), the priest found it finally. Unfortunately, it was too late (this concept, being too late, was often raised throughout the movie.), the impatient soldiers killed him before Thomas could stop them. From that moment on, the conquistador fought alone because of two of his men left were killed because of their cowardliness while facing Mayan warriors. He fought alone with the "king" or the "guardian" of the fountain. If you want to know who won, keep reading.

It is year of 2006, a scientist named Tommy (Jackman) who does experiments on a monkey was very eager to find a cure for his wife, Izzi (Weisz), who had a desease that caused her not feeling anything. Izzi knows she's going to die soon so she started writing a novel called "The Fountain", which was accidentally the same as the title of the movie I am talking about. In addition, it tells what I just told you, too. Don't understand? This is where I think the story's success is-it plays with your mind when you're "experiencing" the movie and it became logical to you when you're out of the theater...hmm... Back onto the track, she finished most of her book and left only the last chapter for Tommy to compose as she finally died right before the cure was developed. Again, this is where the "being too late" came into the story. There were quite a few discussions from this part of the movie that will impact people. One of the most impressive one for me was whether to spend more time with someone you know that is dying soon or searching for the cure. In Tommy's case, he spent more time on developing the drug so he regreted about not spending enough time with Izzi. He had not yet finished the book at the end of this time period but the sotry line jumps from present to future, or when the real side of the movie ends. Again, keep reading or you won't understand.

In the last part of the movie, which was the final journey of Thomas's quest for the eternal life, the Astronaut wore a meditate-like clothing and first appeared to be meditating above the tree you guys see on the poster. The main idea, or the creativity here came from Buddhist beliefs-said the director Darren Aronofsky even someone at the Q&A asked him if the idea of Hugh's eating the tree as a spiritual bread came from the Catholic holy communion. Well, I guess the circle and the meditation, and all the yellowish colors that were found in last scenes were Buddhist. The astronaut (I didn't mention his name because it was either not mentioned in the movie or I forgot...or sometimes the director meant not to mention his name because it couldn't be more obvious that they three were the same person from the beginning to the end.) was trying to reach Xibalba, a place where 2006 Tommy and Izzi promised that death and life shall meet, while traveling in the "bubble rocket" with a tree that symbols the Spanish queen, or Izzi. As he got closer to it, the life indicators of the tree weakened more. Eventually, it was too late again as the tree died right before they reached Xibalba. The three stories then joined together as one as the editor showed the ending of the three stories altogether: the conquistador didn't need to beat the Mayan to pass to the tree of life, because he was a special person who deserved to drink from it. The modern Tommy ran out to the snow-covered field where his wife was buried to place a cone that he got from the tree onto Izzi's grave. The end to the space expedition was his life's being taken away to join Xibalba with the tree's death as one. Now here comes another memorable quote form the movie

" Death is the way to Awe and Life."

Well well, that was the plot...Now we can get into the outstanding lighting and framing.