The Fountain

Earlier this semester Professor Leeper talked about trusting film makers and what they are trying to convey through their films. That was a feeling that I had last year when I saw The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky. The Fountain is a great story about life and death, science and religion, and the fragile existence of humanity in this world. There are three story lines that are intertwined together, with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz as the protagonists of all three stories. They are in love in all three stories but death keeps separating them each time. Throughout the film, the stories keep jumping back and forth through the time spans and each of them is connected in a very interesting way.

The reason why I disagree with the film is because the film uses the Christian principle of the Tree of Life, which is what the film is based on, but as the story progresses it builds upon Buddhism and New Age beliefs. Reincarnation and Karma are also one of the things that are very clear in the movie. In my opinion, blending religions together and making a completely different religion out of them is why the film did not succeed as Aronofsky hoped it would. I think it was the differences in the religions that made the story weak because each religion differs in the same ideas, like life and death, and eternity.
I did not trust Darren Aronofsky with this movie because I felt that he was unclear about his own beliefs and instead of pursuing his questions, he was trying to make his own religion by blending different ideas. However, I think that his movies are great and interesting to watch, including The Fountain.