The Fountain

"The Fountain" (2006) is about life and death all the same. A surreal quest for life that takes you from middle age Spain all the way to a dying star of Mayan myths to see where life and death joins together in harmony. The story of a dying woman that has to be finished by her beloved. You might say it takes him ages to become able to... finish it. Among the unalterable facts that we have to accept death seems to be the most fearsome. And yet, if I was to define the human condition in one word, it would be the "but..." we respond to these facts, and indeed many times this rebelling word is what helped us change seemingly immovable circumstances and bend them in our favor. It is this spirit that seeks to alter our condemnation to death, and he travels a long way to finally accept it as the graceful fulfillment and renewal of life. An interesting note about the visual effects in the movie (the dying star sequence): they are not CGI, but microphotographic shots of chemical reactions. I think it is pretty interesting how well this much cheaper solution turned out to be, as I am not sure that any CGI would have been better here, but I am quite sure that this choice resulted in a unique visual world that I may have lost the chance to see if CGI had been used. Beautiful and enlightening film from Darren Aronofsky with the enchanting music by Clint Mansell.