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movie review - The Fountain

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is am ambitious story about a man struggling to save his wife from cancer. His investigation leads him into some experimental solutions, which ties us narratively (if not very logically) to two other threads involving different iterations of our hero and his lady that play out in different times. One of these is the Age of Exploration, where our man is a Spanish conquistador and his lady is his Queen. The other is set in the far future where our boy is tending a tree in a sphere as it travels through space because reasons and his gal is a .. I want to say hologram? Or AI? Anyway, the whole thing revolves around the tree, which was the target of the conquistador's journey and is also the source of the modern-day doctor's experimental treatment.

I felt that the complex start to this thing probably led inevitably to it getting away from the director, but there was enough here that I watched it to its conclusion. It's beautifully made, that's for sure, and the cast is truly giving it their all.

Not recommended.