Darren Aronofsky (the director of “Pi” and “Requiem for a Dream”) has a new movie opening this Friday in the States called “The Fountain;” it stars Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, and the movie deals with the acceptance of death and the celebration of life. Now, if you’re familiar with this sir’s work then you know that you’re in for a very different movie than the blockbusters you’re used to seeing… I can’t write up a review since I haven’t seen it yet, but I have been following its development closely as well as audience reactions to the movie and there’s something that’s worth talking about in this exclusive interview of the director with Chud.com (you can read it here) where Aronofsky, responding a question regarding the movie-going public’s reactions to the flick, said how he was told that we live in the age of cynicism; to make a movie as earnest as this one seems to be is borderline ludicrous. The plot of the movie is simple enough: Hugh Jackman plays a man trying to save his wife (Rachel Weisz) from death in three different timelines: in the past as a conquistador, in the present as a scientist, and in the far future as an astronaut in the middle of space. What I keep reading though is how earnest and honest the movie is in its subject material as well as its themes… how it deals with mortality, life, death, love and other stuff that’s bigger than you and I. It seems to be a very polarizing piece as well; there have been people who have gotten into fist fights at festivals after screenings of the movie… either hating or loving it, but always very polarized opinions. Why, though? It seems that the people who hate it, hate it because the film is very un-American in the way it tells its story.

American blockbusters are all about the action pieces and fighting death while the whole point of this one is accepting it. It happens with my friends and I all the time; I like movies that I have to be invested in and make me think while a lot of my friends like the popcorn kind of movie… to them, it’s an excuse to shut your brain off for 2 hours and have some fun. That’s perfectly fine, man… “Desperado” is one of my favorite movies, and there can’t be any other flick that’s more ridiculous in its unabashed hyper-violence (other than “Commando,” of course) but there’s a reason why I like Asian movies: they challenge my mind. “Old Boy?” Jesus Christ, that movie is excellent and I know I would never see an American movie approaching that flick’s themes with a 10-foot pole, even. Don’t read a review: watch it. You have to experience it. Anyway, mainstream American audiences are not used to getting uncomfortable while watching a movie, I suppose, and much less movies that don’t hold you by the hand and feed you everything you need to know. Some movies achieve a great balance of bold moviemaking while still making things easy to follow (”Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is a prime example of this. Excellent and inventive movie, but simple to follow) and they deserve all the kudos they garner, but then there are others who ask the audience to follow the clues and piece the movie together… those movies? Yeah, they don’t do so well on this side of the globe than they would in, say, Europe.

Take a look at Christopher Nolan’s track record: “Memento,” a movie about a guy who can’t retain new memories as he tries to solve the mystery of who murdered his wife, requires a lot of audience immersion, specially since the movie unfolds backwards. There are many gaps that are left for the audience to figure out with the information the movie gives you and for people you like leaving from a movie experience thinking about it days afterwards, this is a great one. My friends? They hated it. Now, then there’s Nolan’s most popular movie to date, considered by many as one of the best entries in its genre: “Batman Begins.” Excellent movie, a serious drama where the main character just so happens to put on a bat suit and do vigilatilism every night. It’s such a mainstream movie, and ironically the auteur’s most popular.

A good example of how very different Eastern and Western sensibilities are from each other is Martin Scorcese’s “The Departed.” In case you didn’t know and no matter what you hear, the flick is a remake; the Hong Kong trilogy of “Infernal Affairs” is one of the most bankable Asian franchises of all time. As I saw and read more about the movie before it was released they tried to play down the “remake” angle saying it’s more of a re-imagining of “Infernal Affairs,” but personally I have no idea what the difference is. Of course, the characters are American and the movie is set in Boston instead of Hong Kong, but otherwise it’s essentially the same thing storywise. If we talk about each movie’s sensibilities though, I personally incline towards the American version… it’s somehow tighter and the stakes feel higher than they were in the HK original. Of course, this is probably because I’m a westerner and when you do something right it doesn’t matter where it comes from, but the point I’m trying to make is that even though both movies are essentially the same (and both are fantastic), they’re two very different movies all at the same time. It’s the sensibilities… “The Departed” is another movie that ups the quality bar whithout being a bad parent to the movie audience. It seems that the only way of doing truly revolutionary American cinema is to find that balance, because when directors take away the “popcorn” aspect their audience won’t want to see what they have to offer. The formula seems to work just fine too, since original movies that have become media darlings such as “Borat” and “Casino Royale” (I’m so glad the latter seems to be as good as it looks. Daniel Craig is awesome… you should seek out “Layer Cake” when you have the chance; if you liked “Snatch,” you’ll like this one) are really setting off the box office.

Aronofsky’s “The Fountain” and to some degree Richard Kelly’s (of “Donnie Darko” fame) “Southland Tales” seem to be suffering through the same problems, and it’s a shame because both movies seem to bring new stuff to the table, and audiences are too dumb to grasp it, I suppose. The way the movie performs will most likely determine if whether or not it’ll be released in Panama, so I can only hope that it will do well. I read in a Latinol board that it’ll premiere the same day it does in the States, which is November 22nd… I hope it’s true. I’m dying to see this… and I suggest you do yourself a favor and check it out as well. Here’s the trailer, if you haven’t seen it already. Word on the street is that this might very well get Hugh Jackman an Oscar. Crazy, don’t you think? Wolverine having an Oscar.

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