A trio of individual tales comprises the runtime of The Fountain, with the one receiving the most screentime being one that takes place in the modern-day world and depicts a neuroscientist named Tom (Hugh Jackman), a fellow with a natural inclination to wanting to solve any medical problem he comes into contact with. He wants a tidy resolution, preferably for the better, but he's soon dealt the blow of his girlfriend, Izzi (Rachel Weisz), being stricken with a fatal disease for which there is no cure. Tom is grief-stricken by this development and while Izzi seems calm and collected at the prospect of impending death, Tom goes an a crazed mission for a cure.
Playing against this story are two plotlines told in differing time periods far separated from the age in which Tom lives in. One of these stories follows a conquistador named Tomas (also played by Hugh Jackman), who has been tasked with finding the mystical Tree of Life for Queen Isabella (also played by Rachel Weisz) while the other chronicles a man by the name of Tommy (Hugh Jackman's third role) floating out into the cosmos in an attempt to preserve a massive but dying tree by way of exposing it to a dying star. Though Tommy tries to clear his head by way of meditation, he is still haunted by visions of the past in the form of Izzi.
The screenplay by Darren Aronofsky zig-zags across this trio of stories with a surprising amount of grace, The Fountain doesn't feel overstuffed or bloated despite its 96-minute long runtime being comprised of three different tales spanning across not just centuries of time but even the vastness of the cosmos itself. Uniting these individual plotlines is Aronofsky's skillful balance between ensuring there's a sense of distinctiveness between each segment of the motion picture while also cleverly weaving in unifying themes, namely a heavy concentration on intimate character beats, across all of these various stories.
In terms of keeping the separate storylines of The Fountain their own unique creations, there are different visual styles integrated into the individual narratives. The Conquistador tale, for instance, is, in the universe of this film, meant to be a visual representation of a page-turner of a book Izzi has written, so it's filmed in a more traditional style befitting a conventional crowd-pleaser action movie. Meanwhile, Tom and Izzi's storyline in the modern-day environment is filmed in a more naturalistic way (though there are some more stylized pieces of camerawork here and there) to emphasize the more mundane nature of this plotline. Finally, Tommy's voyage into space is full of wide shots and more heightened imagery meant to capture the limitless possibilities offered up by the uncertain nature of the cosmos themselves.
Unifying all of the various storylines is the presence of Hugh Jackman, who turns in some of his best work as an actor in his assorted performances in The Fountain. Jackman turns out to be just as convincing as a lust-driven conquistador as he is at playing a more serene man of the future, while he's absolutely heartbreaking portraying Tom in the story that may just serve as the anchor for the entirety of The Fountain. He's also terrific at playing off of Rachel Weisz, I already love that Aronofsky's script plays these characters as just a happy couple rocked horribly by unavoidable tragedy and both Jackman and Weisz have sublime chemistry in scenes depicting both the most joyous and forlorn moments of their life together.
In the future-bound sequences, Jackman and Weisz act against a visually dizzying version of what the farther corners of outer space may just look like. The bright colors and splendor of this vision of outer space seem to be heavily inspired by renderings of the cosmos seen in classical paintings and that visual inspiration serves The Fountain and its spectacular depiction of outer space. Rather than just resting on the laurels of the visual majesty seen in the cosmic portions of the movie, the rest of The Fountain has a pleasing visual style to it, particularly in Jay Rabinowitz's editing which ensures that the various cutting across the differing stories comes off as natural instead of disorienting.
By the time The Fountain was wrapping itself up, I was fully immersed in Aronofsky's cosmic exploration of mortality, especially given how absorbing it is in terms of both its visuals and performances. It's such a bold movie in the way it tackles the idea of learning to let go, something Aronofsky's script makes clear is much easier said than done. The Fountain probes that element of existence in a large-scale way that never forgets about the small-scale human details that make undergoing the processing of coping with loss such an emotional ordeal. It's an ordeal that man has grappled with for ages and one that provides an emotionally transfixing backbone for The Fountain, the absolute best movie directed by Darren Aronofsky.
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