Directed By Guy Ritchie
Starring – John Krasinski, Natalie Portman, Eiza Gonzlez
The Plot – Two estranged siblings (Krasinski, Portman) join forces to seek the legendary Fountain of Youth. Using historical clues, they embark on an epic quest filled with adventure. If successful, the mythical fountain could grant them immortality
Rated PG-13 for violence and action, and some adult language.
Fountain of Youth — Official Trailer | Apple TV+
POSITIVES
Expanding on an already eclectic career of films, Ritchie unloads his single most adventurous engagement to date, taking audiences on a globe-trotting excursion of ancient relics and familial ties that once more proves his versatility as a commanding filmmaker. Despite the change in atmosphere and visuals, Ritchie’s intensity towards action sequences still persist, both with endearing camera motions that navigate the character devastation with faithful persistence and artistic flare, but also fluidly crisp fight choreography that push these conflicts to a virtual boiling point amidst its clashing characters, offering far more hand to hand combat than I was expecting for what is essentially a family friendly movie that feels accessible to all ages. The physicality is undoubtedly at its best when Gonzalez is involved, especially considering the actress does all of her own stunts in the film, and though Esme is shrouded in the mystique of her ambiguous character design, the momentum of the experience practically doubles down any time she unceremoniously appears to shake things up, and with Ritchie commanding her with such velocity and resiliency that effortlessly attain believability in a mercenary of sorts sent to maintain the Fountain’s many secrets, the film is able to tap into some much-needed adrenaline to inscribe a complexity to already a grave difficulty of action set pieces, cementing Ritchie as still one of the best action directors going today, despite so much here working against his crucial efforts. Joining him in the fight are the undeterred efforts of Krasinski and the aforementioned Gonzalez, who each add a vital element of complimentary endearment to the engagement, even despite the fact that the performances of this ensemble are unfortunately a mixed bag. Krasinski cements leading man status, not only for the abundance of charisma that he constantly distinguishes through confident deliveries of comedic timing that would make Ryan Reynolds blush, but also the unforeseen physicality factors that make him an action star in the making, and Gonzalez, while deduced to a supporting role, feels like the only performance that is firmly in tuned with the personality that Ritchie is going for, with unflinching focus towards grit and resiliency that compliment her distracting beauty endlessly. However, if there’s one factor here that demanded to be experienced in theatrical settings, instead of straight to streaming, it’s the expansive depth of the movie’s sound design, with all of the rattling, shaking and shifting of the movie’s duo of destructive set pieces offering an immersive encapsulation to the environments that our protagonists are experiencing. This is where the movie truly earns the urgency and vulnerability factors of designed danger, especially with so much uncertainty about the places that they’re stepping into, and between this and the detailed articulation during swiftly enacted fight sequences, the production is really able to underline vigor in its climax, audibly distinguishing something epic where the rest of the movie regretfully couldn’t.
NEGATIVES
Even despite occasional benefactors that keep “Fountain of Youth” from being one of the year’s worst, it’s still a truly unmemorable engagement thanks almost entirely to its derivative screenplay, keeping the material from ever truly finding a distinct voice of its own to make this a memorable voyage. From the opening few sequences, we’re met with overwhelming feelings of “Indiana Jones”, “The Mummy”, and especially “National Treasure”, and while moviegoers may be fans of those iconic franchises, this one lacks the heart, characterization, and wonderment in spectacle that makes this such a predictably telegraphed experience, evading unsubtle character shifts and overwhelming convenience that eviscerated any semblance of difficulty to this team’s mission. On that front, characters not only contain a never-ending abundance of vital information that helps them to solve centuries old conflicts in a matter of minutes, despite career paths that wouldn’t be privy to such information, but also impeccable timing towards being incredibly always in the right place at the right time, and it all becomes unintentionally hilarious how lucky they all are at resolution, voiding the movie of any semblance of prolonged uncertainty or conflict that outlines the difficulty associated with these missions. It also has too many irons in the proverbial fire, with an abundance of adversaries outside of this group of protagonists, which the script lacks time and effort to faithfully focus on, instead making each of them, outside of Gonzalez’s Esme, feel like valuable additions to the proceedings. It so obviously attempts to build towards a convergence to its climax, but lacks interests in fleshing out the dangerousness of its many antagonists, resulting in an undercooked climax that lacks the scale and spectacle of the ingredients involved. If this isn’t enough, the script also falls victim to the typical episodic structure of these pocketed conflicts each leading to the next, and despite the fact that the movie is blessed with a two hour run time to flesh these respective missions out accordingly, its imbalance of usage is apparent in some receiving far too much time, while others are abruptly cut entirely, leaving the featured fountain deduced to the film’s final thirty-five minutes, where by then it’s already been devalued, on account of the movie’s arduous pacing, or the abundance of tacked-on character subplots that it never comes close to even addressing or resolving. The fountain set piece itself isn’t even rewarding from a visually transfixing appeal, with lifelessly limber C.G designs and greenscreen backdrops seemingly as the only evidence of the movie’s astonishing 180 million dollar price tag, and between it and some audaciously hilarious decisions to cater towards sequel-baiting, the movie ends on such a vaccine towards entertainment value, making a majority of the two hour trip to get here feel every bit the obligation that it felt, as quickly as the movie’s halfway point. If this isn’t enough, Ritchie’s direction also disappointingly contradicts its own appeal, with clashing tones and abrupt shifts that constantly pits the sweet sincerity of the movie’s familial element at odds with the depths of its own darkly devastating engagement, with the brunt of this tug-of-war being felt during the aforementioned climax alongside The Fountain. For my money, the film felt all the more entertainingly compelling when it catered to the lighthearted family atmosphere of the films it borrows unapologetically from, if even just to appraise Krasinski’s comedic timing, but unfortunately Ritchie’s compulsion to include edgeless shootouts not only sacrifices its initially humbling heart, but also can’t quite attain the ferocity and devastation of his previous films, on account of the movie’s watered down PG-13 rating, leaving more to be desired on two respective directions that work separately, but conflict conjoinedly. Finally, while Krasinski and Gonzalez soar with respective portrayals of brains and brawn, the disappointing spectrum of the movie’s performances fall entirely on Natalie Portman’s shoulders, whose tragic miscasting makes her turn as Charlotte feel like a wet blanket that continuously hangs overhead on the movie’s proceedings. Without any of the energy and conviction that makes Portman a firestorm of dramatic intensity, her work here falls by the wayside of a stacked ensemble, and in being reduced to a straight character forced to respond to Krasinski’s quips, we’re ultimately left with nothing memorable from the Oscar-winning actress, who feels like an outsider in the action and adventure genre.
OVERALL
“Fountain of Youth” occasionally stumbles upon charmingly functional fun in sporadic doses, on account of Krasinski’s charismatic turn, or its crisply executed fight sequences, but the excursion into familiar territory of better films before it unearths a highly derivative and excessively overstuffed screenplay that tires quickly on tedium. While Ritchie has made worse, he’s never made something this unmemorable, leaving this fountain free of anything rejuvenating that makes even a streaming audience want to spend two hours alongside it.
My Grade: 4.9 or D-