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vincent_ireland
Reviews
The Fountain (2006)
Outstanding - I only wished there were more films of this quality
This film is full of nuance and is interwoven in such a way that makes it a feast for those who love to analyse, interpret and debate. But for those who prefer to forgo the puzzle aspect of a film, it is a lush experience first and foremost that doesn't need to be analysed to be enjoyed. But for those who can't resist the riddle, questions revolve around these points: how do Tomas the Conquistador/Tommy the oncologist/Tom the astronaut relate to one another? Are they the same guy? What about Queen Isabella/Izzi dying of brain cancer/Izzis' apparitions? Are these reincarnations? Are they parallel lives? What is "real" in The Fountain and what is imagined? On one level these questions could be said to miss the point. The whole film is by definition a work of imagination. Nothing in it is really "real". Some would say that what matters is the way the film affects the viewer, the impressions it makes, the thoughts and feelings it leaves you with. However let's be honest, on another level the film can be approached as a puzzle. So, looking at it as a puzzle, what is the solution to the previous questions? My own best take, having seen the film a few times, goes something like this. The film is about Tommy and Izzi struggling to come to terms with her death and its consequences for Tommy who will be left behind. Izzi manages to make peace with dying, but she recognises that Tommy can't. She has been writing a book called "The Fountain" about a Conquistador (representing Tommy) who wants to save his queen (representing Izzi) from tyranny (the cancer) by finding her the key to eternal life (Tommy's oncology research). The process of writing the book has helped Izzi come to terms with dying. It is also a final act of love in that she gives the book to Tommy to finish. Her wisdom is that by getting Tommy to finish the book the process of writing it can unite them one last time in their joint struggle to heal over Izzi's premature death. By struggling to finish the book Tommy may find the path Izzi found, out of despair and towards a sense of peace and awe (she once describes it as feeling "full, held"). So the "real" parts of the film are the scenes involving Tommy and Izzi that are set in the present. The scenes involving the other couples (Tomas and Isabella, as well as Tom and the apparitions of Izzi and Isabella) are from the book "The Fountain" that they co-write. The scenes from the book with the fictional Tomas/Isabella/Tom are essentially the working out of the struggle Tommy and Izzi go through to come to terms with loss and death. We can imagine that Izzi, being fascinated with the Mayans and Spanish history, wrote most of the scenes set in that era. We even see Tommy reading these scenes from her book. I think that Tommy, being a man of science, and essentially desolate after the loss of Izzi, wrote all of the Tom the astronaut story arc. Throughout the film we see Tom travelling towards the Xibalba nebula, trying to keep alive the tree which somehow carries Izzi's essence. Tom's journey, his struggle and suffering alone in space, haunted by the memory of Izzi, mirrors Tommy's journey of grief in the present. Throughout the film we hear Izzi say to Tommy/Tom to "finish it". This is her insistence to Tommy that he find a way to finish the book. Her faith is that when Tommy finds a way to finish the book he will find a way to make peace with life and death, love and loss. At the end of the film we see that Tommy recrafts the final scene Izzi wrote in the unfinished book to tie in with Tom the astronaut's quest. Initially mid way through the film the confrontation between the Mayan priest and Tomas the seeker of eternal life showed the priest ready to strike down the intruder. In the recrafted scene Tom appears as a floating enlightened being before the priest, and the priest recognises that Tom has "got it" – he is prepared to die to create new life. He is the "First Father" by virtue of this realisation. We then see that Tom reverts back to Tomas, who slits the priest's throat. I think this is Tommy writing out the Tomas character, who represents an earlier version of himself, when he was essentially unenlightened and is still "going after the gold" of eternal life, and is still resisting the fate that awaits him. Next, in eating the sap from the Tree of Life Tomas unwillingly is converted into foliage. This kind of mirrors the Bible where Adam and Eve try to cheat ignorance by eating from the Tree of Knowledge. I think this may be just to show the futility of going after eternal life and the consequences of trying to cheat death. We then see Tom going through a kind of transcendent death. We already know he embraces this because of this exchange between him and the Izzi apparition earlier on: Tom(joyfully): "I'm going to die!" Izzi: "Together we will live forever." Tom: "Forever." His passing gives new life to the tree he has been transporting and nurturing. This represents the universe being renewed. Tom and Izzi will together live forever but not by literally cheating death, but rather by reaching a higher understanding and by accepting their return to become a part of the where they came. This ties in with what Izzi tried to explain to Tommy earlier in the film about death being the road to awe. The final scene in the film, where Tommy plants the seed in Izzi's grave, shows that he has finally grasped the realisation that allowed Izzi to die in peace.
House M.D.: After Hours (2011)
Best House episode in a long time
Simply one of the best in quite a while. Really gripping and hard hitting stuff. It's hard to believe so much was packed into the 45 minute format. Just goes to show what can be done when the bar is high. Take the House story arc alone. He finds out that he's risked his life with experimental rat medicine. He opts to perform life threatening surgery on himself. This is filmed so viscerally, it's genuinely hard to watch. You know he's stoned himself to handle the pain, but he can't be so stoned that he passes out or cuts an artery. It doesn't get much more messed up than this, even for House. You feel like you're there with him, in the bath tub, alone, rat poison in the veins, a set of tumors in a withered leg, a scalpel and a bunch of drugs. When it starts to go wrong and he starts calling all his "friends", you sense his aloneness. It makes you reflect on who you could call in such a situation. And that it would wind up to be Cuddy who answers his calls, coming with child in toe, was quite poetic. The family united! So dysfunctional and yet so very poignant... The story arcs for Taub, 13, Foreman and Chase are equally strong, and only space forbids me to comment on their dramas. This probably should have been extended into a double episode and been the season finale... On a side note, this one reminded me of a great Stephen King short story, entitled "Survivor Type", about another junkie doctor who also performs major surgery on himself. Brief, gripping and well worth a read, a good accompaniment to this episode. Some things just stay with you.
House M.D.: Moving On (2011)
Quite an anti-climax
House season finales have traditionally been very strong, but this one comes in as a weakling. The episode before it, "After Hours", is a far better episode. Maybe that one could have been tweaked to make it the one to end on, by making it a double episode. In any case "Moving on" is the way the writers chose to tie the season up. First up the patient-mystery with the performance artist is pretty boring. Second, House's behavior is out of character in the way that he endangers the life of Cuddy's child with his stunt with the car. House never balks at endangering himself physically and he doesn't care a whit about harming other people emotionally. He will easily risk other people's lives in order to save them, but he doesn't stoop to risking children's lives for the sake of getting even with an adult - even House doesn't cross that line. So the thing he does at the end just appears stupid. Third, the sight of him walking off along a beautiful beach into the sunset is really a bit much. It was just kind of a lame ending overall. Extending the "After Hours" episode into a double episode and having a different way for House to bale out without bottoming out at the end of the season would have been better I think. But hey, you can't always get what you want.