LONG-AWAITED AND LUKEWARM

The Fountain

There are several reasons why it makes sense to hate The Fountain, the third helping from indie prodigy Darren Aronofsky, least of all being its pretentiousness. The enigmatic plotting, transmitted through overt spiritual symbolism and heavy-handed mythologizing, spanning three separate time periods and featuring the same central performers in each era as star-crossed lovers is not really such a rotten idea—but that density hardly befits a director whose first two films possessed more focused contemplation. Now Aronofsky has taken the Jackson Pollock route: spewing a million ideas in as many directions across a canvas 96 minutes long. You can’t blame him for trying.

Read the rest of the review in the New York Press...