# The Fountain: Or Don't Eat the Brown Acid, Man! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2006, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fountain-or-dont-eat-the-brown-acid-man/381832 "2006-11-26T10:18:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![WomanofScorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@WomanofScorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WomanofScorn)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fountain-or-dont-eat-the-brown-acid-man/381832/41 "2008-01-21T01:54:19Z")
I just watched this move lastnight too. Man…I’m not sure if I liked it or hated it. I did get a bit teary eyed in parts during the current Izzy and Tom, but most of the movie I was just lost. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fountain-or-dont-eat-the-brown-acid-man/381832/42 "2008-01-21T02:16:22Z")
\*\*My synopsis is shorter: \*\* _2001 as a love story._ ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fountain-or-dont-eat-the-brown-acid-man/381832/43 "2008-01-21T03:08:38Z")
There are three threads: 1. Izzy’s story. Fictional. Had two main characters, imagined in Tom’s mind as himself and Izzy, but weren’t really them. 2. Reality. Izzy is dying, Tom finds a cure just days too late to save her. 3. Tom’s wish for the future. Perhaps if he lives forever he may find a way to restore her to life. His method is to fly a surreal spaceship containing her tree to a nebula. He fails, because you cannot bring back the dead. But it was only a wish, and didn’t actually happen. It seemed pretty clear to me what was going on, after I finished watching it (surprisingly - I often miss things amongst surreality like that). ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fountain-or-dont-eat-the-brown-acid-man/381832/44 "2008-01-21T18:44:20Z")
[nitpick]I don’t believe that the treatment made the monkey any _more_ intelligent, but returned him to functionality that they had not seen until prior to his tumor forming.[/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fountain-or-dont-eat-the-brown-acid-man/381832/45 "2008-01-21T21:55:43Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] you certainly don’t need that long, and you certainly don’t need that complex a story, just to say, “Death isn’t bad.” [/QUOTE] This was my reaction. I enjoyed the first half hour or so. Then I started to grok where the thing was going, and what it was all supposed to mean. And I got worried: “It’s got to be about more than that. All this noise and kerfuffle, for _that_ message? Can’t be.” And at the end: “Nope, that’s all it was.” Press Eject. Great visuals, and **Tuckerfan** ’s complaints notwithstanding a fantastic performance by Hugh Jackman. (Seriously. The director says, “Okay, you’re going to cut a hole in a tree and suck out the jizz, and you have to mean it.” It takes a hell of an actor to pull that off. I mean, try to imagine Ashton Kutcher diving into a tree’s muff. Don’t undersell what Jackman achieved here.) Ultimately, though, it’s a lot of handwaving for not very much. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fountain-or-dont-eat-the-brown-acid-man/381832/46 "2008-01-21T22:08:19Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] \*\*My synopsis is shorter: \*\* _2001 as a love story._ [/QUOTE] Do you mean the “2001” that is about how an alien intelligence provokes the evolution of the human species? What part of “The Fountain” bears any relation to that? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2008, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fountain-or-dont-eat-the-brown-acid-man/381832/47 "2008-01-21T22:34:55Z")
The part where Rachel Weisz beats Hugh Jackman to death with a femur? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-fountain-or-dont-eat-the-brown-acid-man/381832.md?page=2)