//Death is the Road to Awe in The Fountain

5 / 5 stars
'06s The Fountain
Written and Directed by Darren Aronofsky; Starring Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz and Ellen Burstyn

"Death is the Road to Awe."

In the last quarter of 2006, a film titled The Fountain dazzled movie goers around the world—with it’s heart-warming story about love, loss, and spirituality. It was full of adventure and visualistic style. The Fountain is about one man’s thousand year odyssey—spanning over three different time periods; the 1500’s, the year 2000, and the 2500’s—to save the woman he loves.

Hugh Jackman (X-men, Van Helsing) plays Tommy Creo—a research oncologist—who attempts to shrink brain tumors. He is motivated by his cancer-stricken wife, Izzi—played by actress Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener, The Mummy films)—who hasn’t got much time to live. After the testing on a monkey named Donovan comes back negative, Tommy breaks medical protocol and uses an untested compound derived from a Quatemalan tree. As the results come back negative on shrinking the tumor, positive results do come in the form of rejuvenating Donovan, healing his wounds and improving his cognitive abilities—this still does not impress Tommy.

Back at home, Tommy arrives with Izzi nowhere in sight. He panics until he finds her outside on the balcony roof. She shows and explains to him a golden nebula, that is wrapped around a dying star called Xibalba—a star worshiped by the Mayans—through a telescope. She later brings up the tour guide she had when she made the trip to Guatemala and tells Tommy a story about the guide’s father and how after he was burried, a seed was planted over his body and when the tree bloomed, he became part of that tree.

She explains that she’s writing a book about it, but isn’t yet ready for him to read it—she is leaving the final chapter for him to write and finish. At this point of the film, the viewer should really be interested in this book of hers, because we find out that it is her book, that makes up the 1500’s era of the movie. Izzi’s book is clearly influenced by her struggle with cancer.

It is actually the perspective of the book, in the 1500's, that opens up the film—Grand Inquisitor Silecio demonizes Isabella (played by Weisz) as a heretic and sets out to take New Spain from her. As Silecio kills her followers, Isabella calls apon the man she loves—a conquistador named Tomas (played by Jackman)—to find the Tree of Life, so that they can live together for eternity. This is kind of Izzi’s way of expressing her emotions that she experiences with having cancer. She wants Tommy to save her from the cancer (death by Silecio), but yet this book is helping her except her fate.

“Death is the Road to Awe”—said to Tomas by a Mayan priest

This is said to Tomas, as he arrives at the Tree of Life in the book. I believe this quote is the perfect representation of the film—as it easily identifies with Izzi’s life. She has accepted her death, because learning and believing in the Mayan history, she knows that it will only get better after her death. She will live with the heavens and live for eternity without pain. This quote also strongly represents the film’s pre-production backstory, because at one point, this film almost did not happen.

In April of 2001, writer/director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) entered negotiations with Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow to direct an untitled sci-fi epic. In 2002, the film was greenlit with a budget of $70 million and became The Fountain. After the crew began building the set in Australia, actor Brad Pitt—who was signed on for the lead roles at the time—left the project due to artistic differences. Shortly after Pitt’s departure, the production was shut down and the set was auctioned off. Aronofsky’s project was shelved at Warner Bros. for a later time.

In February of 2004, Warner Bros. would resurrect the project only if Aronofsky could rewrite the script with a smaller budget in mind. After the new script was revised, the original draft was sent in to Vertigo Comics to be published as a graphic novel—with artist Kent Williams. With the new script, Warner Bros. set out to find a co-financer and found New Regency. The film received a second greenlight, but with a budget of $35 million—half of the original’s. The film was finally made, making the quote “Death is the Road to Awe” a perfect but mere coincidential reflect off of Aronofsky’s struggle to get the film in theatres.

This movie is so powerful, that I could easily break a tear if my testosterone level would allow it. The soundtrack by Clint Mansell is what makes that even possible. The percussion sets in perfectly for the perspective of the book, and the strings play beautiful tribute to the emotion the viewer is embracing during Izzi’s hardships with cancer. It’s originality fits the film so well, that you can literally listen to the soundtrack alone and watch the movie in your thoughts.

The score is not the only thing that give off the powerful vibe—it is also Hugh Jackman’s performance as Tommy. You get the chills from his dedication to Izzi. At one point in the film, his boss (played by Ellen Burnstyn) yells at him for breaking medical protocol and insists he spend more time with his wife and take a week off of work. Tommy cuts her off and immediately cries “She could be dead by then!” Jackman pulls off the emotion so believeably, you often wonder what he had to think about to prepare for the heartbreaking scene.

You almost feel sorry for Tommy, even though his boss is right, he should be spending time with Izzi. You actually feel more sorry for Tommy than you do Izzi really, because Izzi has accepted death, she’s obviously scared—but at the same time she’s more worried about Tommy and how he is going to pull through with what is inevitable. The chemistry between the two though, that is something that have lead Jackman and Weisz to the Oscars with award nominations.

**SPOILER ALERT FOLLOWS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE:

The sad part of the film comes when Izzi dies seconds before Tommy gets word that Donovan’s tumor is shrinking. The scene where he runs back into her room to push the doctors away, is such a gut-wrenching performance. We finally see Tommy break down, and realize that it is all over.

Being at the funeral does not help either, as he is clearly in anger of not being able to find the cure in time. As he walks away in the middle of a speech, his boss follows him to comfort him. He cuts her off from saying anything and says “Death is a disease, it's like any other. And there's a cure. A cure - and I will find it.” He goes back later to her grave and plants a seed—in remembrance of the story she once told him.

Five hundred years pass, and we see Tom—it is obvious that he, back in 2000, found the cure for death. Here is where the visuals in the film really shine. We are treated with the most unique way of viewing the vastness that is outer space. Jeremy Dawson and Dan Schrecker provided the visual effects for The Fountain by teaming up with specialist Peter Parks to create the look and feel of the 2500’s era. Parks specialized in macro photography—he brewed chemicals and bacteria together to create reactions of which Schrecker and Dawson filmed in the course of eight weeks. To create space, Parks took advantage of fluid dynamics, which affected the behavior of substances that he photographed. “When these images are projected on a big screen, you feel like you’re looking at infinity. That’s because the same forces at work in the water—gravitational effects, settlement, refractive indices—are happening in outer space the very same,” Parks explains. Seeing the final result with Tom floating through space, is truly beautiful eye-candy.

Tom is now an astronaut, traveling in the year 2500, towards a golden nebula (Xibalba) in an ecospheric spacecraft. Inside the spacecraft is a tree, a tree that you would think to be the Tree of Life, but in actuality—it is the tree that he planted over Izzi’s grave five-hundred years ago. In this part of the film, you see that Tomas has thousands of rings tattooed on his arms, which I think is a really cool element in the film.

It is like his calender—a way of keeping track of the years that have passed since he has lost Izzi. It is also a great way to show the audience that Tom, is the future Tommy, because back when Tommy was in surgery with Donovan in 2000, he lost his wedding ring—in the future, you see that Tom has tattooed the wedding ring on his finger. I just love the look of it too, it gives Tom a distinctive look from his past-self.

During his travels, he is frequently tormented by memories of Izzi saying to him “Finish it.” He does not know what she is asking of him—but during visions later on, he realizes she means the book.

He goes back in his thoughts and remembers reading up until the final chapter that was left blank. In his head, he starts to fill in the lines of how the book could end. Tomas kills the Mayan priest and makes it to the Tree of Life, but once he drinks of it’s sap, flowers sprout from his body and he dies lying next to the tree. In the wake of finishing her book he also begins to realize what will happen when he reaches Xibalba. It will explode and in doing so—he will die. Leaving him to live with Izzi in the afterlife which finally gives him peace. He realizes his thousand-year journey should have been over years ago—if only he would have spent time with Izzi, instead of trying to find the cure—he would have died of a normal lifespan. Which would have brought him to Izzi quicker.

**END SPOILER

The Fountain is one of my favorite films, and I think it is the most original to come along since `04’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes movies about “coming to terms” with one’s guilt and struggles. It is a film that has a specific plot and meaning—but it is a film that was made to have many interpretations. It is definitely a breath of fresh air.

--Brok Spiker

Peter Parks quote from Steve Silberman, Wired News