The Fountain

"Darren Aronofsky is a genius" seems to be the general opinion, from what few reviews i've read on the net. When I saw the movie "The Fountain", I couldn't get past the first few minutes without interruption. I couldn't understand what the movie was about, although I was certainly awed. And intrigued. I had to look up imdb to see what the movie was about, to convince myself to sit through the movie. And that was when I realized Darren Aronofsky, the director, was also the one who wrote and directed Requiem for a Dream. And Pi. That in itself was enough to convince me.

Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, Fountain of Youth, eternal life, Mayan creation legends, cancer, disease, death, fight for survival, medical experiments on monkeys, animal rights, space travel, bubbles, reincarnation, schizophrenia, yoga, the Lotus Position, Spanish Inquisition, treasure hunt, astronomy, the Xibulba nebula, yeast cultures, co-dependence, eternal quest. Some of the things that figure in the movie. And oh, by the way, there were no computer-based CG effects used, the awesome depiction of stars and nebulae was done by micro-photography of yeast cultures. And this is only what you see. What is meant to be understood, after seeing it, is still a mystery. Even after seeing the whole movie I still couldn't understand what the movie was about, except that it ended. And somehow, I was fulfilled. In Aronofsky's own words, "it's very much like a Rubik's cube, where you can solve it in several different ways, but ultimately there's only one solution at the end".

Open to interpretation. That's what I like about some movies, like the hindi one I saw the other day, "Life in a Metro". Seems to me that involving the audience, in the movie and its interpretations rather than in creating plot twists and story arcs, (such as taking online polls of what kind of story the public wants --- ouch!) is an integral part of critical success.