The Fountain

The Fountain
Originally uploaded by annethelibrarian.

K won tickets for us to see a screening of The Fountain (in wide release 11/22/06). We went last night at the Emagine Novi.

I enjoyed the movie in terms of it being something pretty to look at, and it was semi-interesting trying to figure out what exactly the director was getting at, but overall it was pretty meh. The theater was filled with open-mouth-chewing, talking-like-it's-your-own-living-room, not-very-interested-in-the-movie-at-all savages, which was distracting. The movie wasn't enough to block those annoyances out, which I take as a sign that I wasn't as engaged as I should've been had the movie been truly engrossing. Even when the audience wasn't being loud, I still found my mind wandering.

The basic conceit (same couple, three different times) works only in the most shallow way. We just don't get to care enough about the individuals. Too much time is spent repeating scenes and drawing broad parallels between the eras and not enough on simply getting to know the characters. In a Big, Grand Love Story, it's not enough to know that one is upset because the other is dying--we need to know them enough to care that one is dying.

An aside: what a waste of the talented Ethan Suplee!

Going by their vociferous comments as the credits began to roll, the audience we were surrounded by 'didn't get it' and were frustrated that no one was willing to 'explain it' to them. Personally, I think there wasn't enough there to be explained. The ideas and characters weren't fleshed out, at least on the screen (was too much footage cut or never actually shot?). I'd recommend that those still curious wait until your local library acquires the DVD.