A Love Letter To Darren Aronofsky

Today I’d like to tell you about my new favorite movie.
But before that, I’d like to tell you a little bit about the reigning champ that has been displaced by that movie.
If you’ve read Resurrection Angel (and you have, haven’t you?) you know that there’s a pretty pivotal emotional chapter that includes Denton, Monty and Lisa going to see “Dances With Wolves”.

For years, since I saw, it “..Wolves” was my film.
I identified with Lt. John Dunbar, played by Kevin Costner. An outsider, alone, set in his ways, and happy with his routine and habits. Bit of a death wish. Dunbar was a man with his own definition of honor and life.

He doesn’t mind the isolation of the small fort in the wilderness. He merely goes about his day, waiting for something to happen.

And it does.

From the second that the Indians come into his life, his life is never the same.
The battles Dunbar faces, both inner and outer, change him forever.

I bought the VHS the day it was released.
I bought the two disc, special edition DVD the day it was released.
I never missed it when it came on TV. Flicking through the channels and suddenly seeing a piece of it spark by was like seeing the glint of a coin through the clear water of a stream.
Putting down the remote and watching the movie was like reaching down into that stream, feeling the water against my skin and taking the small, cool, wet treasure as my own.

I still have a very warm and personal connection with the film in a way that any girlfriend nor wife will probably ever understand.

But now, a new film has taken its place.

That film is Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain”.

This part of this entry is going to be difficult.
It’s going to be difficult to put into words the extreme emotional effect that this movie had on me.

Before we go any further, please watch the trailer below.

I’ve been sitting here, thinking about this entry, trying to put into some coherent form just how much I love this movie.It’s like no movie that I have ever seen, period.

It’s gorgeous, it’s lush, it’s visually the most striking film I’ve seen in years.
The colors and the cinematography leap, slide, curl at your feet.
When you watch, when you listen to the score, you can feel your chest go up and down, you can hear the breath through your nostrils, your concentration is that absolute.

Aronofsky takes you into this world, takes you by the hand, then leaves you there.

He allows you to think, to feel, to see, to hear exactly what you want to feel, to see, and to hear.

Nothing is what it seems.

Do not take the trailer at face value. Allow it to tease you, but do not assume that it is telling you the truth.
It’s a chanteuse, beckoning you into the darker recesses of the nightclub.

Once you are in the club, the pleasures you wish, the experience you want to have is your choice.

It’s the best job that Jackman has ever, ever done. And this is coming from someone who loves the X-Men.

If you are familiar with the classical tone poems of Sibelius or Debussy, then hopefully you will know what I’m talking about when I say on an emotional level, that watching this film is like listening to a poem.

The script is not linear. There’s no one there to hold your hand, lead you through the 120 pages of screenplay.
There’s no one to tell you what to think or how to feel.
The characters will not reveal themselves blatantly.
There are no stereotypes, there are no caricatures.
The characters gently strip, layer after layer, and even then they only go so far.
At the end they remain an enigma.

I realize that this has been a bit of a love letter, albeit a disjointed one, but I truly hope that you will search this film out and watch it.

I remember going to Blockbuster and being surrounded by 50 to 100 copies of the latest Adam Sandler crapfest, but only seeing two copies of this movie, like diamonds hidden in a dung heap.

I encourage you to reach out and take this treasure for your own.