The Fountain

Written and Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Cinematography by Mathew Libatique

Music by Clint Mensell

The Fountain, directed by Darren Aronofsky, in a word can be described as ambitious. It’s a word that some of my favourite films embody and its a quality that I almost always applaud. In this first argument of many, I’d like to highlight a moment from one of my creative writing classes to exemplify this idea of ambition. 

It was late into the evening on a cold Wednesday in March. I was standing 3 feet behind one of my peers as most of the class filed out the back door of the classroom. Normally I would have been half way to the train station by then, but on that particular Wednesday, I was keen on picking my writing professors’ brain about something (the day’s reading, the mark I got on my piece, or something he had said in class.) As I waited, I couldn’t help but overhear the student ahead of me ask a question.

“What makes a great movie great?” The question is almost laughable. How does one even begin to answer a question like this? Well, my professor took a crack at it, and his answer has stuck with me until this day, and informs the way I approach all stories.

“Well, a good film, like any good text, offers an expectation and then either meets or exceeds these expectations in its execution.” This to me gets at the core of what makes great stories tick. It in many ways expresses the same idea of the Core Question (which you can read about here). A story that creates an expectation and then meets it is a success. 

In the story of Lord of the Rings, we expect to see what happens to the ring. And the story doesn’t disappoint. The moment in which the ring is finally destroyed is so satisfying because the story in it’s execution showed us a journey in which our expectations were surpassed. For example could you imagine if the ring had been destroyed 10 minutes after Frodo arrived in Mordor? Or perhaps if the story ended and we were left out an answer of what happens to the ring. The idea I’m trying to get at is in creating an expectation, a story must deliver in its journey and resolution of said expectation. Which brings me back to The Fountain and the word ambitious. 

The Fountain, the expectation it sets and its core question are ambitious. The film promises a lot. Three separate story lines (seemingly one story line) across 1000 years, tied together by the same characters to create a narrative about man’s oldest desire: the pursuit of immortality. In doing so, the film attempts to do a lot, some of which it doesn’t succeed in doing.

The Core Question the movie presents is: how will our hero find the source of immortality (no big deal right?) to save the love of his life? In the year 2000 a doctor pushes the boundaries of medicine and science to find a cure for his wife’s terminal illness. His wife, a writer has spent her life writing the tale of a conquistador and his beloved Queen in the year 1500. Our hero ventures to the New World to find the legendary fountain of youth in order to save the Queen when attempts on her life put her in mortal danger. Lastly, in the year 2500 our doctor now zooms through space in a futuristic orb spaceship, the tree of life in his possession, keeping him alive far past his time, on his way to a distant galaxy his wife believed to be the resting place of those who had passed. He treks in hopes to reunite and potentially revive his now deceased wife.

Even just reading this brief summary is enough to confuse anyone. The film is trying to do a lot with these intertwined storylines. So much so that it often loses the audience. A lot is asked for from the viewer quite early on. When introduced to these story lines, it’s quite ambiguous as to where each are headed and and even more ambiguous in what we are to expect from each. In light of being asked so much so early on, the trajectory of the story is unclear for quite some time. Even once the audience gets a grasp of where things are headed, the film struggles to establish a journey and resolution that feels fulfilling.

To summarize, in an attempt at being ambitious The Fountain’s core question, the characters’ needs and the expectations that it sets, are ambiguous and unclear. The result of this being an unfulfilling story.

So what did we learn? The shortcomings of this film teach us the importance of a clear, defined and to a certain degree, simple Core Question. Yes, The Core Question is an idea championed by one group of storytellers, but the essence of this idea is universal among storytellers. My writing professor refers to the idea as expectations, Dan Harmon uses the part of the story circle called the need and Stillmotion uses the idea of The Core Question. Whichever way you’d like to look at it, a story needs a distinct and definitive goal to create a fulfilling story.