X-Message-Number: 28692
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2006 16:17:24 -0500
From: Francois <>
Subject: The Fountain

Well, I have just returned from seeing The Fountain. It is, in my opinion, 
much more than what Eric Geislinger's rather dismissive comment would lead 
one to believe. First, visually, it is as impressive as I expected it to be, 
and those visuals are musically very well supported. I'll probably purchase 
the soundtrack, something I don't often do where movies are concerned. 
Acting is top notch, although the movie's atmosphere is rather somber. 
Smiles are few and far between, it is not something to see if you need 
cheering up. But visuals and sountracks are only packaging, what about the 
content, the story itself?

The story is difficult to define. The movie shows many events occuring in 
three specific epochs spread over a period of about a millenium, but their 
meaning is not given. It makes you think, it makes you ask questions and 
gives precious few answers. In this, it reminds me of Solaris, or 2001 a 
Space Odyssey. This may prove to be very frustrating to the current 
generation of moviegoers, used as they are to being spoon fed every little 
bit of information about everything that happens on the big screen. I, 
however, enjoyed this aspect of the movie and found it most refreshing.

The story also touches many aspects of human existence, ambition, love, 
fear, despair, hope, faith kept and faith lost. Although it obviously lacks 
the depth of a myth that has been told and retold through many generations, 
it shows the promise of someday becoming such a myth, if it is ever allowed 
to go through these many retellings. And, of course, it does grapple with 
the ultimate question of our mortality. I'm afraid that here too, it offers 
only questions and interrogations to meditate uppon, and no real answers. 
But that's ok, since nobody knows those answers anyway. It is remarkable 
that, although religion figures prominently in the movie, God himself is 
never evoked. The focus is entirely on Humanity and how it deals, or not, 
with its mortal condition.

This is not a movie for scientists. They even got the astronomy wrong. Being 
an amateur astronomer, these are things I notice. But anyone who has poetry 
in them, and who still asks questions about the color of the sky or the 
meaning of Life, should enjoy it as I did.


Francois

Good health is merely the slowest
possible rate at which one can die. 

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