Gaily bedight, a gallant knight ...

Sometimes, when you watch a movie because a particular actor is in it, you end up with weird and often depressing stuff. The Fountain was just such a bizarre and sad movie.

The storylines are slightly confusing (there are three): the first has Hugh Jackman as a conquistador looking for the Tree of Life in Guatemala, and Rachel Weisz as "a" Spanish queen (named Isabel) threatened by a land- and power-hungry Inquisitor. (It's so ludicrous, one has to overlook the historical issues one would normally have ...) The second storyline takes place now-ish, where HJ is a scientist trying to find a cure for what ails his wife (cancer? like the hazy 16th-century details, this story arc is a bit fuzzy). The third plotline is the weirdest and most confusing: is it the future? is it some state of consciousness? Whatever or wherever it is, HJ is doing yoga and floating in a bubble with a dying Tree of Life, drifting towards a nebula that is about to implode. Though he seems to have lived a very, very long time (he inks rings around himself, like a tree), the only memories he seems to have are from the 16th and 21st centuries. And in all that time, he hadn't come to terms with death.

Thankfully, the movie is fairly short. The three storylines are pretty badly tied together. (Is the 16th century one really happening? Is it just a story written by RW in the 21st? Or are all three arcs happening somehow at the same time?) I don't think anything could have saved the film. Woooooo! Mystical and violent Mayans hoarding the Tree of Life/Fountain of Youth! Spooky and violent Inquisition spiraling out of control in Spain! Images reminiscent of an Enlightened Buddha, transcending time and space and life and death! There are so many hilarious exoticized themes, it seems a little mean to tear it apart.

On the upside, and in an unrelated matter, I now have a dresser and more dishware. Xtina's church's rummage sale had some good stuff. And on the way to the rummage sale, Lady Grace and I passed several places in Jamaica Plain where, I found out later when researching and making my trivia and karaoke spreadsheets, there might be decent places to go a-quizzing and a-singing . The challenge is to drag people there. Ride, boldly ride . . .