Is it possible to feel a love so great that the chains of death cannot bind it? Of course we don't know, but the feeling of love — that one, true love — can be so powerful that it's tempting to think that two souls, so united, will meet again. Whether that's in this world or the next, nobody knows, but this topic has certainly been fertile ground for religions, poets and romantically inclined movies.
The movies have been all over the map, cosmologically speaking: We've had heaven in "What Dreams May Come," the spirit world in "Ghost" and reincarnation in "Birth." "The Fountain," the newest flick to address the question of love after death, seems to take in all three propositions, plus a whole lot more, in a muddled mishmash of mysticism.
"The Fountain" 's director, Darren Aronofsky, is certainly a talent, and made a name for himself around the turn of the decade as a craftsman of masterful head-trips, with 1999's "Pi" and 2001's "Requiem For A Dream." Aronofsky undoubtedly has fresh ideas to bring to the screen, but . . . how should I put it? If "Pi" was his "Eraserhead," and "Requiem" his "Elephant Man," then "The Fountain" is his "Dune," a big-budget attempt to make something bizarre within the Hollywood framework that ends in dismal failure. (Of course, being compared to David Lynch is no insult.)