The Fountain (DVD)

I did my best to try and explain my opinion on the story of The Fountain when I wrote my theatrical review so to attempt to do it again would be futile, especially considering I think I would come up with a completely different opinion, which is something I totally expected. The Fountain is a movie I know I will watch multiple times, and it won't be because it is one of my favorite films, but because it makes me think. Yeah, it makes me think of love, life and death which are the themes of the film, but it is much more than that. The intention of writer-director Darren Aronofsky is easy to see with this movie, but it is the way in which he gets there that can be debated by everyone even if you come up with the same conclusions, that is the truly interesting thing about The Fountain.

Is this a movie for everyone? Hell no, and I can only assume after that opening paragraph I have already lost 50-percent of the people that know they will now never watch this film. The trailers tell you this is a visually spectacular film, but the effects are of miniscule importance to this film when you consider everything else it encompasses. Spanning three separate spaces in time The Fountain keeps you thinking and the effects just become another part of the story, occasionally they go a bit overboard and are unnecessary, but in a 90-minute film there isn't a lot of room for dead weight.

Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman are at their very best in this film. Both Weisz and Jackman have to play three different characters in this picture, but the real challenge is separating this characters all while making sure each of them include a little bit of the others. That may sound a bit confusing, but once you see the film you will certainly see what I am saying and this also bleeds a bit into the special features, which is made up of a six-part making of documentary.

Titled "Inside The Fountain: Death and Rebirth" the documentary contains two parts worth watching and four that are really only for those that like to see the more generic side of filmmaking, especially considering The Fountain has so much to talk about that is far from generic. The first segment to watch would be the one titled "Australia" which talks about how this film was almost made in 2002 with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett starring. However, the studio shut the project down and it wasn't until two years later that Aronofsky had rewritten the script, cut the budget in half and gotten two new stars in place. This segment shows a bit of the production work that went into what would have been the 2002 shoot.

The second feature to be sure to watch is the final one, "The Future". This is the segment that shows you how several of the effects were done for portions of The Fountain that you won't see in any other films. You know the nebula scenes from the trailer? Yeah, those were made in a Petri dish. This segment also includes a portion in which Rachel Weisz delivers one of her lines directly into the camera including some ideas bounced off Aronofsky. Weisz is one of our greatest actors at this time and it was fun to watch her go through her thought process.

Overall I think this is a worthy buy for anyone that likes their films a little less straight forward and to the point. This one asks you to think and I already know any Aronofsky fan out there probably already has this one on preorder, as you should. When all is said and done I am not sure how high The Fountain will climb on my all-time list, but I do know that with every time I watch it it will be likely to climb at least one notch higher.