Decades Blogathon: The Fountain (2006)

Originally posted on Three Rows Back and Digital Shortbread as part of the 2016 Decades Blogathon. To see the original announcement post, click here. To see this post in it's original form as part of the Blogathon, click here.

I was a spectator for last year’s Decades Blogathon, so I am absolutely delighted to make the cut to take part this year! As someone with a worryingly long ‘must watch’ list, this was the perfect chance to tick off a movie that I’ve been putting off for a while. The Fountain has been on my list for a while now, I can’t remember exactly what first brought my attention to it, but I was fascinated by the mixed opinions on it. Simply look at the chart on Letterboxd here to see what I mean. There aren’t many ratings charts that look like that.

The Fountain (2006) is an incredibly artistic and complex movie, but in it’s most simplest form, it is the story of a scientist named Tommy (Hugh Jackman), desperately trying to find a cancer cure for his dying wife, Izzi (Rachel Weisz).

It is, of course, much more than that. There are actually 3 separate stories here, all woven intricately within each other. For the first half of the movie, it’s incredibly easy to get confused with the stories, and the timeline itself. There are so many perplexing details that the movie focuses on, that it’s hard to switch off and simply enjoy the story for what it is. Rest assured, all those questions you build up get answered in a drip feed as the time goes by.

In fact, it’s incredibly rewarding to see such tiny details explained such a long time afterwards. It’s really one of those rare movies where nothing is shown or said without a purpose, and I like that. My one piece of advice actually would be to stick with this if you find it getting a bit too much. If it wasn’t for the fact I was watching this for the Decades Blogathon, I can’t confidently say I would have watched the whole thing.

What lies beneath these intricate tales is one of the most heartbreaking yet beautiful love stories I’ve ever seen. It’s a real testament to both Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz for their amazing acting skills and natural chemistry together. Izzi’s battle with cancer is all too familiar any Tommy’s refusal to accept the reality in front of him was so difficult to watch. The name of the movie comes from the book that Izzi has been writing as she documents her journey, and the scene in which she asks Tommy to complete final chapter for her, because he ‘knows how it ends’ is a very memorable one. 

My only real complaint is that the spiritual elements of the movie just get too complicated for me to understand.  Second viewing might aid this, as I literally went in blind, whereas knowing even just the blurb on IMDB would have probably helped me greatly. That said, anyone who is naturally interested in spirituality will have an amazing experience with this. It’s so well done, and considering the fact that it’s 10 years old now, it hasn’t aged at all. If it weren’t for the famous faces in the lead roles, this could easily be mistaken for a current release.

With a runtime of a little over an hour and a half, this movie whizzes by, and the ending comes all too soon. That said, I think if this was any longer some might give up before the end, when all their questions are finally answered. I highly recommend The Fountain, but I accept that it isn’t one for everyday viewing.

Review: The Lobster (2015)

It’s times like this that I love co-running a movie blog. I’ve watched so many movies over the last (almost) 2 years that would have fell completely off my radar would it not be for the little blogging community that I’m part of here. I love reading reviews of movies I’ve seen, learning about the perspective of others is fascinating, but I also love reading reviews for movies I’ve never even heard of. Seriously, if I read a review singing the praises of a movie I’ve never heard before, I’ll do everything within my power to watch it that very night. And that is how I found myself watching The Lobster.  I really struggled to make myself want to watch this, I sensed it was outside of my comfort zone but I was determined to watch it anyway, especially with such a high review from Allie.

The Lobster (2015) has one of the craziest plots I’ve ever heard. I tried to explain it (badly) to Jenna before Christmas but with more time to think I might be able to make it sound more coherent. Set in a dystopian future, single people are arrested and taken to ‘The Hotel’, where they stay for 45 days with the goal of finding a new partner. Should they succeed, they are free to leave, but if they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choice and sent away.

I’m not kidding, that really is the plot! The movie starts with Colin Farrell’s character David, arriving at the hotel after recently losing his wife. With him is his brother, a dog, whose stay at The Hotel clearly didn’t go very well. It takes a while to get accustomed to this movie, it really throws you into the deep end. Everything looks a little dull, and everyone speaks in an almost monotone way that makes the humour that much more deadpan.  The deadpan voiceovers really confused me, for the first half of the movie I thought it was terrible acting rather than a conscious choice. Once I got used to it though I realised it was part of the overall effect.

Throughout the guests 45-day stay, they are forced to attend dances just as awkward as those you attended as a child, and guests are also brought onto stage to talk about themselves, in order to find common ground with the others. They can also extend their stay by taking part in an almost Hunger Games style activity of shooting down escapees with a tranquilizer gun. Each escapee, or ‘loner’ they shoot down is worth an extra day, and not surprisingly, there are a few veterans at The Hotel who may never leave!

I definitely preferred the first half of the movie to the second half, the second half felt a bit more chaotic which was logical based on the change of pace in the movie but I could barely keep up to be honest.  The first half however, I loved.  The bond developed between David (Colin Farrell), the lisping man (John C. Reilly) and the limping man (Ben Whishaw) was hilarious (although not sure if it was supposed to be!!).  Did anyone else notice that no one else in the film had a name other than David?!  I thought about it and checked IMDB and sure enough, not a single name!
 

I loved how this movie brought to light all the crazy conceptions we as a society have about relationships. Things like the fact that we feel like we need to find common ground with someone in order to be compatible, all the way to thinking that having a child is the way to solve problems within a relationship, suddenly seem that more absurd here. I’m a big fan of movies that get me thinking long after the credits have rolled, and The Lobster is one for sure.

My only real complaint was that by the second half of the movie, I felt it had all got much too clever for me, and I started to lose interest. Not in the story itself, but just the ongoings on the screen. I later read a full synopsis of what happened though, and I’m keen to watch this again now I fully understand it.  I'm not sure I would sit through this again to be honest.

This might be the craziest movie I’ve ever watched, and I can’t recommend it highly enough! It was truly insane but completely different to anything I have ever seen before.

 

Mini Reviews: Identity (2003), The Bourne Legacy (2012) & The Last Witch Hunter (2015)

I do love a good mystery/thriller! It’s hard to hunt this kind of movie down because once you know there’s a big twist, you find yourself trying to work it out, so when a work colleague mentioned Identity (2003) and said it ‘was a bit of a weird one’ I yelled for them to say no more and watched it that very night. It’s a brilliant movie about a bunch of strangers who all find themselves trapped at a motel, which is creepy enough until one by one they all get murdered.

It was an entertaining watch, and I didn’t see the twist coming, but my real complaint is that the twist came too early, and the actual ending itself was pretty unnecessary. Still, a good movie and I’d recommend it to other fans of the genre.

It took me far too long to watch the original Bourne trilogy, and with the latest movie on the horizon, I thought it was about time I watched The Bourne Legacy (2012). Plus, it’s got Oscar Isaac, so that was a selling point. (Spoiler Alert - That was a bit of a Cabin in the Woods moment for me, doh). I think my fiance enjoyed this more than I did, but it was an entertaining watch on a rainy weekend evening, with some great action scenes that had me on the edge of my seat and a little twist I wasn’t expecting either.

If nothing else, it’s got me really excited for Jason Bourne later this year!

It’s family movie night. We’d been planning for the last 2 weeks to watch Everest together. At the last minute, my Grampy decides Everest looked boring (argh!) and suggests we watch The Last Witch Hunter (2015) instead. Well….I do always say that I’ll watch any movie once. I didn’t even realise it was actually set in the present day, which cheered me up a little. It’s the kind of fantasy movie my 14 year old self would have loved, obsessed over actually, but now, it just wasn’t enough. It was entertaining at the time, but 3 weeks later I can barely remember it.

Which made me feel like a total snob when the credits rolled and my family gushed about how amazing it was. Well, they are the same family who hail San Andreas one of the greatest disaster movies! Sorry…