Christmas Shopping and a Movie

Black Friday
Today is Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving that kicks off the Christmas shopping season. The Mrs. and I headed to Montgomery Mall. She braved the hoards of crazy shoe-hunting women and got quite a bit of shopping in. I spent the morning doing something humdrum...got my tire replaced because of a shard of glass that was wedged in. How long it was piercing my tire, I'll never know. But thank goodness the Mrs. didn't insist on driving to Leesburg Premium Outlets! After shopping, we had a quick lunch at home and headed over to the Bethesda Landmark Cinema to see The Fountain.

The Fountain
Every once in awhile, I see a movie that makes me stop and think about life. Some of those movies include The Hunger and The Sixth Sense. The Fountain, while not as good as The Hunger and The Sixth Sense, was nonetheless thought provoking.

The movie stars Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, the fiancee of the director - Darren Aronofsky. The plot alternates between three time periods - 1) the 1600s and Weisz as Queen Isabella and Jackman as a conquistador, 2) modern day with Jackman as a cancer researcher-monkey surgeon (no, Jackman didn't play a monkey) and Weisz as his wife, who is terminally ill with brain cancer, and 3) Jackman as a bald 26th century astronaut-yoga afficionado.

A number of themes are presented for consideration in the movie. Life, death and rebirth. Contrasted with death, rebirth and life. The end of one life leading the beginning of another. Eternal life. Enlightenment. Journeying to the heavens and the afterlife. While someone quipped that 96 minutes felt like eternal life, the Mrs. and I were pretty satisfied with the solid performances and didn't feel the time drag by.

The themes are all thought-provoking. What is the meaning of life? Is there life after death? Whatever happened to the tree of life, as mentioned in the Bible, Genesis 3:22? Was it hidden when Eve and Adam ate from the tree of knowledge? The tree of life plays a prominent role in the movie.

The film conveys simple and honest themes. Live life to its fullest. Do not fear death. Seek out personal enlightenment and spirituality. Focus on the important things in life. Don't get so caught up in your work or your quest and lose sight of the present and what really matters.

The movie mixed elements of love stories, history and science fiction together. The writer(s) of the screenplay targeted a wide audience. One might even venture to say that the love stories appealed to the women and the history and science fiction aspects appealed to the men. But the Mrs. disagrees with my stereotypes, so I'll just wrap this up by saying that Weisz and Jackman have a pleasing chemistry that makes it highly plausible that it lasted for a millenium, at least.

Overall, the movie was entertaining, and left me pondering those unanswered questions. The movie has a few loose ends, such as how Jackman’s character went from modern-day scientist to 26th century astronaut and it's not really clear whether he changes the past in one scene or dreams it up. Nevertheless, it was still worth watching. At least at a matinee showing or when it comes out on DVD.

Good luck shopping this weekend - and going to the theater!