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It's a heavy story that jumps frequently between the three time periods, with repeated framing devices, lighting, and dialogue creating a unified, powerful, emotional experience for the viewer. Aronofsky clearly has something to say, especially about the need to accept death as an essential and defining part of life, which is why his protagonist Tommy is so hell-bent against doing so. At one point, Tommy calls death a disease that can be cured, like any other, and it's here that we see the extent to which a person can delude himself because of love for another.

There's an awful lot to chew on in The Fountain, with a foundation built upon, among other inspirations, metaphysics, Mayan folklore, and the Bible; it's not difficult to see how some might be overwhelmed by its ambition. On paper, perhaps The Fountain could be dismissed as a heartless intellectual exercise. But, like Steven Soderbergh's Solaris, the film is first and foremost an emotional journey seeking to explore universal human truths about our fear of death. The metaphors come fast and furious (but, fortunately, sans Vin Diesel), yet it's not necessary to understand every moment or pick up on every reference. This is a movie to get swept up by.

Visually, The Fountain is a tour de force, with every frame carefully considered, a distinct, constrained lighting scheme and color palette, and the depiction of events that humans could never see up close. Especially impressive is Tom's journey through space: chemical reactions were shot by a macro photography specialist, then optically laid over the starfield through which Tom's craft speeds to create an ethereal, other-worldly beauty, and the climax involving an exploding star recalls 2001's heart-pounding final minutes while establishing itself as a unique, definitive vision of celestial activity.

While The Fountain is far from dumbed-down for its audience, it's more accessible than one might think thanks to its organic, honest emotional core. Yes, the best sci-fi films are about ideas, but they're also about people. The Fountain doesn't forget that, which makes it one of the most emotionally satisfying pictures I've ever seen. While it still may not have found its audience, I expect ten years from now a new crop of filmmakers will emerge having been blown away by its craft, citing The Fountain as a defining film that inspired them to want to make movies for a living.

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