The Fountain - Darron Aranofksy (Spoilers, a lot of them)

"I'm ready to die" says Hugh Jackmen in one of the most astounding, last moments in a film called The Fountain.  He quickly climbs the tree that he's been traveling with into the dying star "xbulba". He leaps from its branches and floats out of the bubble of the tree, creating a separate space for himself.  He floats towards the imploding star, ready to rejoin his dead wife.  Everything in the surrounding area is sucked into nothingness, leaving total blackness in the endless space beyond him.  With an explosion, greater than almost anything I have witnessed on film, second only to 2001: A Space Odyssey, comes streaming warm colors tearing off Jackmans body, which has been blown back into a graceful arc.  Like a shooting star he hangs there as the tree, that is his wife, springs too life, plentiful with leaves and flowers.

Back on earth the star brightens in a middle of triangle, a shape seen throughout the film, placed in between the spires of the Aztec Temple.

In the snow Hugh Jackman looks at his wife's grave, not being able to bare with the fact that he could have saved her all along with bark from the tree of life.  He storms away unable to handle the funeral.

After the funeral he kneels down in his wife's grave, and starts digging madly until he pulls up some dirt.    He then delicately places a large seed over his wife, who is the tree.

The tree blossoms below Tom (Jackman) during the rebirthing of the star and souls of Tom and his wife.

(NO MORE SPOILERS!!!)

After watching this utterly astonishing film by Darren Aronofsky, I immediately wanted to start over and watch it again.  This movie is best seen first for it's sheer beauty.   Too be honest, it's old school methods for achieving the visuals through majority use of chemical reactions shot at extremely fast frame rates, and very close up, were more amazing than anything I've seen with just plain CGI (Although clearly CGI was at play for certain aspects of the movie).  On top of that, the graphic matching and varied, aesthetically pleasing shots were excellent in tandem with the great overlaps and composite images.

Another interesting facet of this film was its three paralleled story lines told completely out of sync with each other.

The Spanish conquistador nears his destination when he
met by an Aztec Guardian of the tree.

The one focusing on a 16th century conquistador from Spain tasked with finding the Tree of Life deep in its new territory (Aztec empire) in order to essentially make Spain immortal.

Another set in present day (approximately) where Tom is performing animal research in the hopes that he'll find a cure for a certain brain tumor that is growing inside of his wives skull.

The last (chronologically, not in the order of the movie) is an ambiguous time period.  The sleeve of the DVD said it's the future but there's no real

The snow globe-esque sphere that holds Tom Creo and his
wife approaches the center of the dying star Xbulba

proof of anything besides the fact that the same Tom from the previous story line, now bald and completely shaven, is floating in a snow globe esque sphere with a nearly dead tree and various plants growing inside of it approaching a space nebula known as "Xbulba".

Obviously these three are all connected through means which are hard to explain, but upon the first viewing, it is difficult to pick up on how they are joined as one narrative story.

Upon repeat viewings everything becomes much more clear, in most respects, making you appreciate its complex layout and interwoven stories even more so than the first viewing.

I could try to explain my theories on how it all fits together but it's best you come up with your own because that is the joy in watching movies such as these, putting together the pieces of the puzzle for yourself, then comparing your interpretations with others.

As all the movies I intend to write about, I would highly recommend watching this (or anything else by Darren Aronofsky) as soon as you can.