---
title: "The Fountain"
year: 2006
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-fountain"
fi1m_id: "the-fountain"
imdb_id: "tt0414993"
tmdb_id: 1381
wikidata_id: "Q842770"
fi1m_score: 66
critics_score: 62
critics_reviews: 9
published: "2026-09-27T09:03:53.017309+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-27T09:03:53.603105+00:00"
region: "VN"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Fountain (2006)

Directed by Darren Aronofsky · 1h 36m · Drama, Adventure, Science Fiction, Romance

## Identity

The Fountain

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-fountain
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-fountain
- **IMDb ID:** tt0414993
- **TMDB ID:** 1381
- **Wikidata ID:** Q842770
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414993/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1381, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q842770

**Fi1m score: 66** · Critics 62 from 9 reviews

*In a sentence:* Hugh Jackman does tai chi in a bubble above a dying star, and we mostly went with it

> Darren Aronofsky’s third film tells one grief three times, with a conquistador, a surgeon and a man in a bubble, all Hugh Jackman. It is sincere past the point of comfort, often beautiful, and at 96 minutes too short to earn all of it.

## Synopsis

Three men, all played by Hugh Jackman, chase the same thing across a thousand years. In sixteenth-century Spain, the conquistador Tomás is sent by Queen Isabel (Rachel Weisz) to New Spain to find the Tree of Life while the Grand Inquisitor Silecio (Stephen McHattie) closes in on her throne. In the present day, the research surgeon Tom Creo tests a compound from a Central American tree on a monkey, refusing to leave his laboratory while his wife Izzi (Weisz) is dying and writes a book called *The Fountain*; his boss Lillian Guzetti (Ellen Burstyn) tells him to go home. In a far future, a bald traveller called Tommy floats in a glass bubble with a dying tree, heading for a golden nebula that Izzi names Xibalba, the Mayan underworld.

## Review

Darren Aronofsky made [*Pi*](https://film.one/film/pi) (1998) and [*Requiem for a Dream*](https://film.one/film/requiem-for-a-dream) (2000), two small, hard films about people who want one thing far too much. *The Fountain* is about a man who wants his wife not to die, and it spreads that want across a thousand years. Hugh Jackman plays a Spanish conquistador hunting the Tree of Life for his queen, a present-day surgeon testing a tree compound on a monkey while his wife dies, and a bald traveller in a glass bubble carrying a dying tree towards a golden nebula. Rachel Weisz plays the queen and the wife. It is a film with one idea and an enormous amount of feeling, and at 96 minutes it is both too much and not enough.

The looking is the easy part to praise. Matthew Libatique lights almost everything in gold, white or black. The Spanish court is candles and torches; the hospital is flat white with a cold blue edge; the bubble ship is lit from below by the nebula it is falling towards. James Chinlund builds that ship as a sphere of glass with a wooden floor and a tree in the middle and no instruments at all, so it reads as a chapel rather than a craft. The nebula itself looks like ink dropped in water.

Jackman carries all three men with no protection whatever. The surgeon is his best work. Tom Creo will not leave the laboratory, because leaving means there is nothing left to do, and Jackman plays the refusal as a physical thing, jaw set, hands busy. When Izzi asks him to walk with her in the first snow of the year and he stays at his bench instead, and Ellen Burstyn’s Lillian Guzetti, his boss, orders him home, the film has its plain centre. It moved us more than we expected, and the reason is the imbalance: Weisz plays a dying woman who is not afraid, Jackman plays a husband who is, and Aronofsky lets the two of them sit in the same room without fixing it.

The Spanish strand is the weak leg. Stephen McHattie’s Grand Inquisitor Silecio hisses under a hood, Cliff Curtis and Sean Patrick Thomas, as Captain Ariel and Antonio, have little to do but follow Tomás up a pyramid, and Fernando Hernández’s Lord of Xibalba guards the tree with a flaming sword. We laughed at the sword, once, and then felt shabby about it, because the film means every frame. The future strand asks even more of your patience: a man in loose grey clothes doing tai chi, talking to a tree, eating its bark. We went with it, more or less.

Clint Mansell’s score is a rising phrase for strings and piano, played again and again, a little louder each time, across all three centuries. For an hour it is the thread that holds the strands together; by the last twenty minutes it has become a hand on the back of the neck. Jay Rabinowitz cuts between eras on gestures, a hand reaching, a ring turned on a finger, and the matches are exact enough that the film needs no explaining captions. The dialogue is the weakest craft on show. The queen’s speeches sound translated, and “finish it” is said so often it stops being a line and becomes a cue.

Against Aronofsky’s own record this is the odd one out. *Pi* and *Requiem for a Dream* filmed obsession as an assault, fast cuts and a drum under everything. *The Fountain* films the same obsession as a prayer, slow and gold, and a prayer is harder to edit. It is a film about accepting death that spends most of its running time refusing to, and that is either the point or the problem, depending on the evening.

The last act does something we will not describe. Whether it lands depends almost entirely on whether the snow scene got to you. See it alone, or with someone you trust not to laugh at the sword. It runs 96 minutes and carries a 15, which is a short span for a thousand years.

*Fi1m score 66, published 27 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics come down in favour, though not by a wide margin: five positive against two mixed and two negative. Where they praise, they praise the same things. Hugh Jackman’s performance is singled out again and again, usually alongside Rachel Weisz, and the pair are credited with keeping an eccentric story of grief anchored to something human. Clint Mansell’s score draws similar approval, and even the doubters concede the imagery is striking.

The reservations gather around the writing. Several critics find the dialogue clanging or tacky and the philosophy vague, and they part on whether the film’s sincerity makes up for it. The spread is wide. Variety and Time Out dismiss it outright, one as tedious and emotionally unengaging, the other as lacking any insight, while Little White Lies and Eye for Film rank it above anything else Aronofsky has made. It is a film critics either forgive or do not.

## Straight answers

**Is The Fountain worth watching?**

*The Fountain* is worth watching for anyone with patience for a slow, sincere film about grief, and we scored it 66. Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz make the present-day hospital strand genuinely affecting, but the conquistador story is thin and the ending asks more than 96 minutes has earned. See it alone, or with someone who will not laugh at the flaming sword.

**How long is The Fountain, and what is it rated?**

*The Fountain* runs 1h 36m. It is a drama and adventure film.

**Where can I watch The Fountain in Vietnam?**

*The Fountain* is not on any streaming or rental service in Vietnam at the moment. It is available in 39 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is The Fountain, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Fountain* carries a UK 15 certificate and is a film about a wife dying of illness, not a violent or frightening one. There is a conquistador strand with swords, a hooded Inquisitor and a fight at a Mayan pyramid, but the real weight is emotional. It is not for children, less because of anything shown than because its slow grief would leave them baffled.

**How does The Fountain compare to Solaris?**

*The Fountain* and [*Solaris*](https://film.one/film/solaris-1972) are both slow films about a man who cannot let a dead or dying wife go, told partly in space. Tarkovsky's film is the deeper and more patient of the two, though its long conversations explain what the acting has already shown. Aronofsky's is shorter, warmer and more golden, and it suits a viewer who wants feeling over philosophy.

**What should I watch after The Fountain?**

After *The Fountain*, try [*Solaris*](https://film.one/film/solaris-1972) (1972, Fi1m 87): Tarkovsky’s slow space film about grief and a dead wife who will not stay dead. Then [*The Tree of Life*](https://film.one/film/the-tree-of-life) (2011, Fi1m 84): Malick sets one family’s loss against the birth of the universe, and mostly earns it; and [*Ikiru*](https://film.one/film/ikiru) (1952, Fi1m 92): Kurosawa’s clerk learns he is dying and finds out what to do about it.

### Reviews we read (9)

- **Little White Lies**, Matt Bochenski (5/5/5): The critic calls the film an unparalleled, emotionally powerful achievement. They single out Hugh Jackman’s performance, supported by Clint Mansell’s score, as anchoring its story of grief. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-fountain)
- **Empire**, Helen O'Hara (85/100, inferred): O'Hara finds the film moving and thought-provoking despite its deliberate obscurity and occasional clanging dialogue. She especially praises Hugh Jackman's career-best performance and Rachel Weisz's warmth and intelligence, which ground the film's eccentric story. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/fountain-review/)
- **Total Film**, Total Film (4/5): The review finds the film imperfect but transcendent, praising its ambition and emotional impact. It singles out Jackman and Weisz for giving the intimate love story a moving emotional core. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-fountain-review/)
- **Slant Magazine**, Nick Schager (3/4): Schager finds the film uneven and sometimes silly, but ultimately moving and invigorating in its daring sincerity. He praises its visual artistry and Clint Mansell’s elegiac score for deepening the emotional force of its romantic themes. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-fountain/)
- **Screen Daily**, Lee Marshall (64/100, inferred): The review’s verdict is unavailable in the visible page text. The paywall also hides what the critic singles out for praise or complaint. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/the-fountain/4028508.article)
- **The Independent**, Nicholas Barber (50/100, inferred): Barber finds the film absorbing but says its ambition is undermined by tacky dialogue, effects and philosophical vagueness. He particularly praises its psychedelic, metaphysical sweep, while criticizing its overlong message about making the most of life. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-fountain-12a-434033.html)
- **Time Out**, David Jenkins (10/100, inferred): The critic dismisses the film as a turgid, insight-free failure. They complain that its ornate, hippie-dream approach lacks substance. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-fountain-1)
- **Variety**, Leslie Felperin (10/100, inferred): Felperin finds the film incoherent, tedious and emotionally unengaging. She praises its striking visual effects but says the thinly drawn characters and repetitive storytelling undermine them. [Read](https://variety.com/2006/film/awards/the-fountain-1200513757/)
- **Eye for Film**, Scott Macdonald (94/100, inferred): The critic calls the film astonishing, ambitious cinema and regards it as Aronofsky’s masterpiece. They single out its striking imagery and the emotionally convincing performances of Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. [Read](http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-fountain-film-review-by-scott-macdonald)

## Details

- **Director:** Darren Aronofsky
- **Director:** Darren Aronofsky
- **Screenplay:** Darren Aronofsky
- **Story:** Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel
- **Cinematography:** Matthew Libatique
- **Editor:** Jay Rabinowitz
- **Music:** Clint Mansell
- **Production design:** James Chinlund
- **Costume design:** Renée April
- **Producer:** Arnon Milchan, Iain Smith, Eric Watson
- **Cast:** Hugh Jackman as Tomás / Tom Creo / Tommy; Rachel Weisz as Isabel / Izzi Creo; Ellen Burstyn as Dr. Lillian Guzetti; Mark Margolis as Father Avila; Stephen McHattie as Grand Inquisitor Silecio; Fernando Hernández as Lord of Xibalba; Cliff Curtis as Captain Ariel; Sean Patrick Thomas as Antonio
- **Runtime:** 1h 36m
- **First release (Italy):** 4 September 2006
- **Genres:** Drama, Adventure, Science Fiction, Romance
- **Budget:** $35 million
- **Box office:** $15 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT1B1ykme2M

## Where to watch in Vietnam

Not streaming, renting or buying in Vietnam at the last check.

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CO, CZ, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HR, HU, IE, IL, IT, JP, LT, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SI, TR, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Solaris* (1972), Fi1m 87: Tarkovsky’s slow space film about grief and a dead wife who will not stay dead — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/solaris-1972.md)
- *The Tree of Life* (2011), Fi1m 84: Malick sets one family’s loss against the birth of the universe, and mostly earns it — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-tree-of-life.md)
- *Ikiru* (1952), Fi1m 92: Kurosawa’s clerk learns he is dying and finds out what to do about it — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ikiru.md)
- *Cloud Atlas* (2012): Six centuries, recurring faces, a bigger cast and an even bigger risk of laughing
- *Wings of Desire* (1987), Fi1m 88: Wenders’s angel gives up eternity for a trapeze artist and a cup of coffee — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/wings-of-desire.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-fountain