Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world.
Darren Aronofsky clearly didn't set out to make a usual movie...[The Fountain's] a story of overreaching that itself overreaches, but that might have been impossible to avoid.
– Keith Phipps,
AV Club,
27 Nov 2006
rotten:
Mr. Aronofsky's outlook on life remains too constantly pessimistic for my taste, and too completely joyless as well.
– Andrew Sarris,
New York Observer,
29 Nov 2006
rotten:
The Fountain is the story of a gifted artist who dared to reach for the stars and paid for his ambition with a really stupid movie.
– Dana Stevens,
Slate,
30 Nov 2006
rotten:
Lurches on a thin line between hyper-ornate space oddity and extended perfume advert.
– David Jenkins,
Time Out,
25 Jan 2007
rotten:
I will concede the film is not a great success. Too many screens of blinding lights. Too many transitions for their own sake. Abrupt changes of tone.