[attrition] review: Movie: The Fountain

[lyger]

http://attrition.org/movies/fountain.html

The Fountain
2006
Czarina

It's a shame when good movies go bad, particularly when their plots sound 
so new and promising, stars good actors, and has good buzz with the 
critics.

Well, The Fountain is one of those good movies that went awry in its 
efforts to deliver a satisfying movie, and I'm a little mad. The movie did 
manage to do a good job with visual aspect and the actors were genuine in 
their characters. However, just like a sub-standard soldier in the Army, 
it fails to be all that it can be.

The Fountain is actually an interweaving of 3 stories with the same 
characters and the same goal-- finding the mythical, medical, and 
spiritual Fountain of Youth which will put an end of the pesky problems of 
disease and death.

The film's opening is convoluted as it introduces the 3 stories which are 
all in different stages of progression. The first story introduces us to a 
Conquistador, Tomas (Hugh Jackman), who is fiercely loyal and dedicated to 
the service of Queen Isabel (Rachel Weisz), the Kingdom of Spain, and its 
growing empire. However, the queen is embattled by the Catholic Church, 
which learns of her plans to find the Fountain of Youth (well actually 
it's a tree that gives eternal life to whomever drinks of its sap). The 
queen has been deemed a heretic by Father Avila (Mark Magolis) her prime 
opponent, who calls for her arrest and undeniably, her execution.

[...]