When Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain" finished, I didn't know what the hell I just saw. I felt confused but exhilarated. The beautiful piano music that was on myspace was being played during the end credits (thankfully, the humming is gone). Almost the entire audience sat there in disbelief for about 30 seconds. I went home, feeling disappointed that I didn't understand the film. That is, until, I began reading Devin Faraci notes on the film. Faraci is a film critic for chud.com and he was the first one to champion this film. As I read his notes, everything from the film began to get clearer. What details that were fuzzy were now crystalline, the narrative that felt all over the place had begun fitting itself perfectly.



This is not a film to be just seen, it has to be experienced. It is not a commercially made film about love but it is a true art film ahead of its time. Most film critics hated the film and felt that it was pretentious. I think that they use the word "pretentious" because they don't know what they dislike about it. Richard Roeper, Ebert's sidekick, called the film "one of the worst of the year." I believe that many critics disliked the film because of one reason: it is different. It has to be absorbed through the mind to be made sense of, it doesn't take one viewing to fully appreciate its message and narrative.



Is the film perfect? No, there is no such thing as a perfect film. There are a few flaws, there are some scenes that characters repeat the same actions and there are some scenes that feel shockingly mediocre. Aside from these flaws, Aronofsky's direction is still breathtaking, magnificent, and glorious. But the film would be nothing without Clint Mansell's powerful, minimalistic, and during the finale, bombastic score. This score is deserving of the best score at the Academy Awards, it is that good. The final musical piece is just so goddamn beautiful.

I thought "Children of Men" was the best film of the year. I was wrong.

"The Fountain" is the true best film of the year.