Sadly, my holiday movie viewing seems to be getting into a yearly rut. Thanksgiving weekend, we usually get out and see several movies as we've been "storing them up" for that weekend. Then we might catch one or two as we get closer to Christmas, but between shopping for presents and getting the house ready for either guests or a party (or both), movies tend to end up on the low end of Dani's to-do list. And, since I'm usually included in most of her more important items on that to-do list, MY movie going tends to decline as well.
This year was even busier than usual, as we were going to Seattle to visit Dani's mom right after Christmas, so there was even less time than ever to catch anything. It's a bit of a bummer, since Christmas is what all the studios are saving their prestige pics for these days, and there are bound to be several in the week or two leading up to Christmas that are going to be well worth catching. The only up-side to it all is that the studios treat January as a dumping ground, so there's little worth seeing after Christmas, and plenty of time to catch up.
Having said that… damn, am I behind.
Of the few movies I saw before Christmas, the most interesting, by far, was The Fountain. Having said that, I'm not entirely sure whether this is a whole-hearted endorsement of the film, or simply an acknowledgment of the level of quality of the other movies I saw around Christmas this year. (The Holiday and Night at the Museum are NOT among the great movies of 2006… no matter how much money they may have raked in.)
Not that I didn't like The Fountain. Just that I realized, after seeing it, why it disappeared from theaters so fast and that it really is not a movie for everyone.
On the plus side, it's directed by Darren Aronofsky. After Pi and Requiem for a Dream, I'm ready to see anything this guy does. Of course, after Pi and Requiem for a Dream, this IS the next thing he's done (well, at least directed. Between then and now he wrote Below, an excellently spooky ghost story set in a submarine.)
Requiem still stands as one of the best movies I'll never watch again. Been there once, and it was a journey well worth experiencing. But I never want to go there again. (For those who haven't seen it, Requiem is a film about addiction, and its costs. What sets it apart from virtually every other film I've seen of its type is that you honestly care for these characters. And by the end, when it all ends badly for each of them, you really feel it. Hence my reluctance to see it again. But I constantly recommend it to people, with caveats of course.)
The Fountain is a movie about love and loss. (And transformation, as well, I think, though I'm hard-pressed to say what it says about transformation, or if it merely means to posit the existence, and inevitability, of transformation.) And it's apparently a story that Aronofsky's been trying to tell for at least the past 6 years. Apparently, in an earlier incarnation, it was a much grander, epic kind of story, but had to be pared down to its current state due to changes in fortune (or budget, to be more on the nose).
Which may be why my the first word that came to mind as I was watching it was "claustrophobic". Not that I felt claustrophobic (no, try The Descent for that feeling!) But, early on, it felt as if everything that took place in the film was shot in a defined space, as if they were limited in space. I want to assume it was more than simply budget, that there was an overlying reason for that claustrophobic staging, but I can't put my finger on what it was meant to convey, or if it was meant to make me feel or experience something other than claustrophobia.
Whatever the case, the feeling (or the word) soon passed, only to be replaced by an even more off-putting choice. As the story moved on and the resolution (of at least the contemporary story) became apparent, the word "elegiac" struck me. I'm not often plagued by this thesaurus-like reaction to movies, but for some reason, this one was striking me in one word bursts. I even found myself looking up elegiac when I got home to make sure it was the 'right' word I had been looking for. (It was.) Far more accurate than the more obvious "mournful", elegiac accurately captured, for me, the sense of loss that pervaded the film in it's final act.
All of this is not to say I didn't like the film. I think it was, at times, beautiful, thoughtful, perhaps inspired and always intriguing. But it was also often times slow (almost to the point of lethargy) and, perhaps, obscure in what it was trying ultimately trying to say. (And please, let it not be the greeting-card sympathy of "treat each day as if it's your last", as might be inferred from the closing minutes of the film.)
Whatever the case may be, it was still another trip worth taking. I'm ready for the next one, whenever it comes down the line.
This year was even busier than usual, as we were going to Seattle to visit Dani's mom right after Christmas, so there was even less time than ever to catch anything. It's a bit of a bummer, since Christmas is what all the studios are saving their prestige pics for these days, and there are bound to be several in the week or two leading up to Christmas that are going to be well worth catching. The only up-side to it all is that the studios treat January as a dumping ground, so there's little worth seeing after Christmas, and plenty of time to catch up.
Having said that… damn, am I behind.
Of the few movies I saw before Christmas, the most interesting, by far, was The Fountain. Having said that, I'm not entirely sure whether this is a whole-hearted endorsement of the film, or simply an acknowledgment of the level of quality of the other movies I saw around Christmas this year. (The Holiday and Night at the Museum are NOT among the great movies of 2006… no matter how much money they may have raked in.)
Not that I didn't like The Fountain. Just that I realized, after seeing it, why it disappeared from theaters so fast and that it really is not a movie for everyone.
On the plus side, it's directed by Darren Aronofsky. After Pi and Requiem for a Dream, I'm ready to see anything this guy does. Of course, after Pi and Requiem for a Dream, this IS the next thing he's done (well, at least directed. Between then and now he wrote Below, an excellently spooky ghost story set in a submarine.)
Requiem still stands as one of the best movies I'll never watch again. Been there once, and it was a journey well worth experiencing. But I never want to go there again. (For those who haven't seen it, Requiem is a film about addiction, and its costs. What sets it apart from virtually every other film I've seen of its type is that you honestly care for these characters. And by the end, when it all ends badly for each of them, you really feel it. Hence my reluctance to see it again. But I constantly recommend it to people, with caveats of course.)
The Fountain is a movie about love and loss. (And transformation, as well, I think, though I'm hard-pressed to say what it says about transformation, or if it merely means to posit the existence, and inevitability, of transformation.) And it's apparently a story that Aronofsky's been trying to tell for at least the past 6 years. Apparently, in an earlier incarnation, it was a much grander, epic kind of story, but had to be pared down to its current state due to changes in fortune (or budget, to be more on the nose).
Which may be why my the first word that came to mind as I was watching it was "claustrophobic". Not that I felt claustrophobic (no, try The Descent for that feeling!) But, early on, it felt as if everything that took place in the film was shot in a defined space, as if they were limited in space. I want to assume it was more than simply budget, that there was an overlying reason for that claustrophobic staging, but I can't put my finger on what it was meant to convey, or if it was meant to make me feel or experience something other than claustrophobia.
Whatever the case, the feeling (or the word) soon passed, only to be replaced by an even more off-putting choice. As the story moved on and the resolution (of at least the contemporary story) became apparent, the word "elegiac" struck me. I'm not often plagued by this thesaurus-like reaction to movies, but for some reason, this one was striking me in one word bursts. I even found myself looking up elegiac when I got home to make sure it was the 'right' word I had been looking for. (It was.) Far more accurate than the more obvious "mournful", elegiac accurately captured, for me, the sense of loss that pervaded the film in it's final act.
All of this is not to say I didn't like the film. I think it was, at times, beautiful, thoughtful, perhaps inspired and always intriguing. But it was also often times slow (almost to the point of lethargy) and, perhaps, obscure in what it was trying ultimately trying to say. (And please, let it not be the greeting-card sympathy of "treat each day as if it's your last", as might be inferred from the closing minutes of the film.)
Whatever the case may be, it was still another trip worth taking. I'm ready for the next one, whenever it comes down the line.
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