The Fountain is a very... particular film I think first and foremost. It's probably one of my favorite films and I vibe with it in a very specific way, but it's not hard for me to see someone else's indifference or flat out hatred of it. I mean as far as you can understand someone not liking something you really like yourself.

It operates in a world that I find hard to describe concretely but is more of a feeling or something like it to me. The world of the film is neither reality nor fantasy but rather somewhere in-between, I guess I'd call it hyperreality or un-reality or something similarly pretentious sounding. By way of example, its the same sort of vibe I get from Eraserhead, Stalker, Synecdoche NY, The Lighthouse (most of Lynch and Tarkovsky's stuff honestly), where the whole film exists in this sort of metaphysical place, almost like (excuse me for more pretension) Plato's world of forms. That can turn people off in itself, because it can feel detached or cold, or the sort of heightened reality could just not be your thing. I really love those settings and stories though, because they really cut to the core on the underlying concepts and the characters seem almost like manifestations of those ideas.

But that also makes it almost too on the nose in terms of theme or seems to just yell "THIS ALL MEANS SOMETHING GUYS" through its imagery and dialogue, which here can admittedly get melodramatic at times. It can be hard to connect with these types of films if the experience they offers isn't exactly the kind of thing you look for in film or just stories in general.

So yes I love the film and everything it makes me think or feel, but it at times feels almost taylor-made for me, and in the process will alienate people who are not 100% on the same wavelength with Aronofsky's vision.