Thanksgiving

This year, I'm thankful for Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain."

I had the opportunity to see it twice yesterday and I have to say I liked it alot. Steve and I watched it yesterday on our lunch break and it hit me really hard. On the other hand, Steve said that it was pretentious, but I told him that anyone who liked David Lynch films as much as he did wasn't allowed to call any film pretentious. Except maybe the Matrix. Fuck those movies.

Anyhow, the film was powerful on pretty much every level. There were small pieces of cinematography that actually thrilled me, knowing how hard they would be to pull off and how much harder they would be to pull off right. For instance, there's an amazing tracking shot up Rachel Weisz' arm early in the movie that plays with the focus and it's just really cool. A dozen other shots stood out in my mind, but I'd be hard pressed to describe them here.

The film really explores issues of Death and Love of Life and Loss and coming to terms with all of those issues.

Parts of the film hit me really hard emotionally, like some type of emotional kick to the groin. Sometimes, it hit so hard I found myself shedding tears involuntarily.

The imagery in the film is breathtaking. I was quite impressed and awe-struck. Others I saw it with seemed to think they'd seen it all before, but clearly, they are crazy. The acting in the film was also top notch across the board, there wasn't a moment I didn't believe anyone and Hugh Jackman is probably the greatest living male actor at crying, perhaps tied only with Ewan McGregor.

The music and sound design is once again of particular note. The Kronos Quartet returns to score another Aronofsky score and it is both haunting and wonderful. Also, his use of sound, both overuse in places and underuse in places adds to the atmosphere in ways that other filmmakers should pay more attention to.

And this film is also very much like 2001, where you must come to an understanding about the ending each time you view the film. Your perceptions of it will change depending on what sort of mood and state of mind you're in, I'm sure.

At the end of the day, I'm guessing most people won't like this film as much as I did and it'll be one of those movies that you either love or hate. I don't see many people able to sit the fence on this one. But I would highly recommend that everyone who reads this check it out.