Three eras. Ten centuries. One man fights to save the woman he loves. One man tries to battle the forces of death so that he and his beloved can always be together. One man journeys so far beyond the normal boundaries of the human condition he transcends time and space itself.

Or does he? And, if he really does, at what price? At the cost of the very love he claims to hold dear? His soul? Something even greater and everlasting?

These questions and more lay within the very heart of Darren Aronofsky’s (“Requiem for a Dream”) long gestating science fiction extravaganza “The Fountain.” A bona fide masterpiece, this magnificent motion picture experience transcends cinema and, much like Stanley Kubrick’s “2001” or Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner,” becomes something entirely unique, fascinating and utterly its own. Without question one of 2006’s best movies, it is also this young iconoclastic filmmaker’s greatest achievement to date, and with a desire to keep pushing the envelope and trying new things I’m absolutely positive it is also only a precursor to the brilliance yet to come.

Tomas (Hugh Jackman) is a 16^th-century conquistador ordered to find the Fountain of Youth by the Queen of Spain (Rachel Weisz), the specter of the inquisition shadowing his movements every step of the way. Dr. Tommy Creo is a modern-day scientist struggling to find a cure for the cancer killing his beloved wife Isabel, his single-minded focus enough to place him at odds with his boss Dr. Lillian Guzetti (Ellen Burstyn). Tom is a 26^th-century astronaut sailing through a dying star shepherded by the ghost of a woman who may be the lost love of his life, her words like daggers to the heart as he struggles to bring her back from the great beyond.

I’m not really sure how best to explain this mind-bending triumph of cinematic entertainment. Aronofsky has crafted a Hollywood rarity: an honest to goodness sci-fi stunner more concerned with ideas, concepts and human situations than it is with either spectacle or with blowing things up. There are no alien attacks here, no laser blasters or driven police officers trying to navigate their way through wave upon wave of robot attackers. This is a movie concerned with who we are as a people, what we are doing as a species and where we want to go as a planet. It is a film concerned with the beating pulses of life itself, the filmmaker unafraid to bring both intelligence and complexity to his tale of people trying to hold on to nothing less wondrous than the love they share for the other.

That, really, is what “The Fountain” is and what it is all about. This is a love story about two individuals who may – or may not, that’s up to you to decide – be going on a thousand year journey of survival only to discover what they’ve been looking for all along was the rapturous glories of spending time in the other person’s arms. This movie is more attune, more emotionally intertwined, with what it is like be in love; to breath love, eat love, dream love, feel love; than any other picture I’ve seen in a long time, Aronofsky using the metaphors of eternal life to paint a delicate picture of passion, loss, regret, heartbreak and joyous devotion that’s truly one of a kind.

Needless to say, this will not be every viewer’s cup of tea. The final act is as confusing and cerebral as any I have ever seen, and much like Dave’s journey inside the monolith at the end of “2001” Tom’s path towards enlightenment is a perplexingly fantastical jaunt taking multiple viewings to get even a partial handle on. This is not a movie for those looking for light entertainment or in need of mindless musings to pass the time. Aronofsky asks for a lot from his audience, urges them to look beyond the norm and discover worlds beyond their personal bubbles.

Everything here works in absolute symmetry with everything else. From the performances of the leads (Jackman is magnificent), to the fluid beauty of the visuals (Matthew Libatique’s cinematography is stunning, Jeremy Dawson and Dan Schrecker visual effects blow the mind), to the intoxicating rhythms of the music (Clint Mansell has never written a more rapturous score), there is not a single misstep. It is that perfect.

It goes without saying I loved it. “The Fountain” intoxicated me whole from the very first frame. By the time it was finished I was drowning in tears, the emotional complexities of the denouement enough to leave me sitting in the theater stunned well after the credits had come to an end and the curtain had closed. 

Film Rating: êêêê  (out of 4)