The Fountain

Darren Aronofsky weaves together three stories from three different eras in his visually intricate story about the quest for the secret of life. Hugh Jackman portrays all three searchers: a 15th-century conquistador pledged to Queen Isabel (Rachel Weisz) to find the legendary tree of life; a cancer research scientist racing to find a cure for his dying wife (also Weisz); and a counterculture astronaut, centuries in the future, traveling to a dying nebula in a crystal ball terrarium to save the very tree of life (quite possibly Weisz once again, in spirit if not in the flesh ... or, rather, in the bark). Philosophically, Aronofsky's ideas of life, death and immortality are Hollywood clichés of spiritual insight, but the film is exquisitely executed and his images and objects take on deeper meanings as they flow from one tale to another across eras. It's an experimental art film on a Hollywood budget, less a story than a narrative meditation that circles around and entwines itself through magnificent, unreal visions that could only exist on the screen. Includes the featurette "Inside 'The Fountain': Death and Rebirth" and a gallery of six featurettes that explore the film's various periods and settings.