10 Overly Pretentious Movies We Should've Walked Out Of

2. The Fountain

Love and death are ubiquitous themes found throughout movies - they resonate with audiences regardless of their backgrounds or beliefs, and just as we all seek to understand meaning to life in the face of death so too do we often define our lives by the moments we have loved and cherished. Few movies have attempted to explore these themes in such an ambitious and, ultimately flawed, way as Darren Aronofksy's The Fountain, a film which flopped at the box office but has since gathered a cult following. The Fountain is split into three juxtaposing time lines, each of which star Hugh Jackman and Rachael Weisz as characters from the past (a Spanish conquistador and his queen), present (a scientist and his dying partner) and future (a space explorer searching for his lost love). Cross-cutting between these three eras, The Fountain strives for metaphysical meaning and is replete with recurring Biblical motifs such as the Tree of Knowledge and musings on the duality of nature. Unfortunately, as much as Aronofsky has clearly injected a great deal of passion into this project, the result is mixed and often confused, with beautiful imagery crushed under the weighty philosophical ambitions and left floundering, its multi-layered narrative nowhere near as profound as was clearly the intention. Aronofksy deserves credit for attempting something more meaningful amidst the "culture of superficiality" - it's just a shame that The Fountain failed to reach the heights intended.