Synopsis: There are essentially three parallel story lines which follow three similar characters all played by Hugh Jackman. The three stories are all about finding the fountain of life which, according to the bible, grants eternal life to those who drink the sap from the tree. In each of the stories the character whose names are all a derivative of Thomas, attempts to find the tree in order to save his love. In two of the stories his love is a woman played by Rachel Weisz. The fountain of life takes on various abstract forms for each of the three stories and the act of finding them are also transformed into an abstract action rather than something finite. The abstract nature of the fountain and finding it makes this movie an art form where the audience must get invovled with it in order to discover the theme and message of the movie.
Should You Watch It? Well, this is a tough question to answer because watching this movie isn't very fun. Unless what you mean by fun is sitting around being confused for most of the movie trying to figure out what the hell it's trying to say by paying attention and analyzing ever little detail. If that sounds like fun to you, and I'm sure it does for some, then go ahead! Having said that, this movie is artistic, and it's very well done. It's just not very viewer friendly, unless you fall into the category of people I just mentioned.
Things to Watch Out For: Okay so if you are going to watch this movie then you have to know what to watch for. The point of the movie isn't about finding the fountain. Of course it's not haha that would be too easy. The point of the movie is showing people why living forever isn't important. The movie has a lot of imageries and metaphores about the importance of living your life to the fullest instead of focusing on extending it. That's the major theme of the film. There are small motifs in the film which are important as well. The movie tries to show us that there are many different ways to live forever. And while some may be abstract and just wishful thinking, a lot of it has to do with what your perception of living forever is. Each story is different as it shows us what living forever means to that character. I won't go into the details but you have to constantly remind yourself of these two important themes in order to get the most out of this movie.
Things You Don't Expect: Huge Jackman does a good job in attempting to shed his type cast history as he takes a drastic change in roles. This time he doesn't have claws or pieces of metal coming out of him. Nor does he expose his well chiseled body in any sort of inappropriate way. The music is very good. The orchestral score has a nice motif that recurs during the turning points of the film and does well in stimulating the audience.
Final Score: 7.0
No comments:
Post a Comment