The Fountain 2006

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's refreshing to be in the hands of a filmmaker with a unique vision, and a pleasure to be challenged by a film's flights of imagination. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: It's an incredibly ambitious film of sometimes thrilling visual achievement, but it didn't connect fully to my mind and nerves. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: I think I finally understand what George H.W. Bush meant by 'a thousand points of light.' Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Mr. Aronofsky's outlook on life remains too constantly pessimistic for my taste, and too completely joyless as well. Read more

Meredith Brody, Chicago Reader: A pretentious, unfocused, and fussy mess, in which director Darren Aronofsky manages to make Hugh Jackman unattractive and unsympathetic. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: A tagline has been affixed to the campaign -- 'What if you could live forever?' -- and it has a certain resonance, especially after seeing the film, which makes 96 minutes seem like eternity. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Like the time traveler at its center, it's all over the map. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: This is one of the worst movies of the year. Read more

Bob Townsend, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Aronofsky's long-time-coming version of spiritual wonder is finally more mind-numbing than soul-stirring. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Darren Aronofsky clearly didn't set out to make a usual movie...[The Fountain's] a story of overreaching that itself overreaches, but that might have been impossible to avoid. Read more

Kathy Cano Murillo, Arizona Republic: Even without all the bells and whistles, it still boils down to one love story worth seeing. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: If there were more Darren Aronofskys, the multiplex would be a stranger and better place. Flaws and all, The Fountain believes in itself more fervently than any other movie you may see this year -- so fervently it doesn't need an audience's faith. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: A metaphysical melodrama about the quest for eternal life, it makes a pretty decent case for euthanasia; here is what it's like to long for a swift, merciful end. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Exquisitely beautiful and almost unbearably sad... The Fountain is cinema as poetry; romance as revelation; science fiction as prayer. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's borderline unwatchable. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: The Fountain is either innovative science fiction or overwrought melodrama; I can't quite pinpoint which. I realize I'm charged with reaching an opinion here, but it's not easy. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The Fountain is the most ambitious, rich, romantic and ridiculous film of the year, a movie that's both awe and giggle inspiring. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: I'm perfectly content to float with [Aronofsky] even if he doesn't solve the riddles of the universe. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: The Fountain is every bit as visionary as Aronofsky's 1998 Pi and 2000's Requiem for a Dream, but this time the vision could be one of a third-grader on hallucinogens. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: It's mostly for naught, because while the central relationship in The Fountain covers a lot of ground, it doesn't really go anywhere. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Despite Aronofsky's obviously earnest and heartfelt efforts, this would-be trippy fantasy about love and death is kookier and sillier than anything else. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Aronofsky's passion on this topic runs away with him so much that he neglects to make the characters connect in any meaningful way. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Sitting through a foundering film can be miserable experience. It's particularly painful to see a talented director miss the mark. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: It's often maddening, because of its structure, and some of its visuals are pretentious nonsense. But, as a story of undying love, it's certainly unique. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The Fountain is [Aronofsky's] most accessible movie, romantic and almost straightforward until its finale. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Technically, this is an impressive motion picture, but the fragmented story results in poor character development and Aronofsky's clinical approach limits identification. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I will concede the film is not a great success. Too many screens of blinding lights. Too many transitions for their own sake. Abrupt changes of tone. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Part historical fantasy, part lovers-separated-by-death weeper, part New Age fever dream, The Fountain isn't truly horrible, just very, very silly. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: The Fountain is the story of a gifted artist who dared to reach for the stars and paid for his ambition with a really stupid movie. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Director-writer Darren Aronofsky could reasonably be described as ambitious, obsessive and gifted. It's just too bad about his taste. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: It's as if Aronofsky was so consumed with the film's elaborately contrived aesthetics that he took no time for a little thing called character development. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Guys like Darren Aronofsky give auteurs a bad name. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Anybody could see that Aronofsky was one of the few American filmmakers who saw the cinema past as a jumping-off point, not a toy store to plunder. His films were full of promise; and more, they delivered on their promises. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: Lurches on a thin line between hyper-ornate space oddity and extended perfume advert. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Though his movie is visually inventive, writer/director Darren Aronofsky has fashioned a ponderous, overblown, genre-bending mess. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: Pic's hippy trippy space odyssey-meets-contempo-weepy-meets-conquistador caper starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz suffers from a turgid script and bears all the signs of edit-suite triage to produce a still-incoherent 95 minutes. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: The premise is lachrymose, the sets are clammy, and the metaphysics all wet. The screen is awash in spiraling nebulae and misty points of light, with the soundtrack supplying appropriately moist oohs and aahs. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: It's a sprawling experiment in philosophical time travel and metaphysical noodling. And it's an earnest, magnificent wreck. Read more