My Immortals

The movie: The Fountain, directed by Darren Aronofsky
Reccomendation: Me.
Reason: I like Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman quite a bit, both as actors and as pretty faces. I am also a fan of science fiction.

I left The Fountain twenty minutes ago and I'm still not quite certain what to say about it. It was not a movie to be watched with the brain turned off-I found it quite profound in both the statements it made about immortality and the quest for such, and the delicate nature of life and death. I've already decided to see it again, and I'm positive it will hold up on the second time around. The movie centers around three plots that run parallel to one another, taking place in different times and different places, with the same goals and even the same relationships flowing throughout. It's hard to say more about The Fountain than that, however, without meandering off into ramblings.

A huge part of the stroke of genius this movie is stems from the visual poetry created by the effects and the camerawork. The rich landscapes the movie settles its characters into magnify the emotional resonance of each scene. Again, it's difficult to capture in words an experience that was so wonderfully visual. The look of the movie was designed to provoke thought, to stimulate the viewer into further contemplation of the message.

As I had hoped, Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman really delivered in this movie. I'm a fan of each actor for different reasons, but I felt that both truly disappeared into their characters. I never believed I'd be able to say that about Hugh Jackman in particular, but he was more than up to the challenge of the roles he was called on to play in this piece. He managed some unexpected subtlety, and I'm looking forward to more such work in the future from him. Rachel Weisz was her usual shining best, gorgeous to look at and expert in her portrayals. I think I could gush about her forever, and I probably will. The second movie of 2007 was truly a phenomenal experience.

-2/365 done, 363/365 to go