The Fountain revisited

Hope springs eternal in 'The Fountain'

Like a camera-wielding Ponce de León, director Darren Aronofsky goes on a messy adventure.A New Age head trip about the quest for eternal life, "The Fountain" opens with a quote from the Book of Genesis and climaxes with a tragic encounter with the sap-oozing Tree of Life. In between, its hero—of whom there are three versions, played by a varyingly coiffed Hugh Jackman—battles Mayan tribes, tries to cure cancer and assumes yogic poses against golden, nebulous backdrops that resemble prog-rock album covers.

This, in short, is a very easy movie to mock. Panned by most critics upon its release last fall, it flopped at the box office. The film arrives this week on DVD, where it stands a better chance at achieving, if not immortality, then at least a certain cult longevity.