Death is the road to awe

I went to see The Fountain this afternoon. (Yup, I usually see movies alone). The story was confusing at first (I got inside the theater halfway through the movie). I almost regretted not choosing Curse of the Golden Flower or Ghost Rider instead. But I risked it, thinking that I wanted something that is more than purely entertaining. And boy was I rewarded.

The movie is actually beautiful, with many layers of meanings, about love primarily, but also life and death. (Spoilers ahead).

There are three narratives in the story. The first takes the 21st century as its setting. Tommy (Hugh Jackman) is a doctor and scientist who is on a (desperate) quest to find the cure to brain tumor. His wife (Rachel Weisz) is dying of the disease. Throughout the movie one could see how much he loved his wife, to the point wherein he is almost obsessed with his research. The irony is that he ends up not being totally "present" at his wife's side (he is still distracted by his goal of saving her life). He still cannot accept the reality of his wife's impending death. But Izzi (Weisz) is already at peace with her fate. She helps Tommy accept this and realize that death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something eternal.

Izzi is writing a fairy-tale book called "The Fountain", and this is the second narrative of the movie. Tommy is Izzi's hero, and here Jackman plays the part of Tomas, the conquistador, ever loyal to his queen, Elizabeth (Weisz), and on a mission to save her and Spain. He is on a quest to find the Tree of Life at the middle of the Mayan jungle. He seeks immortality, but most of all he wants to be united forever with his queen.

But Izzi leaves the final chapter/s of the book unfinished. She wanted her husband to finish it for her. She gave him the freedom to decide how the story was going to end. The story helps Izzi express to Tommy how she understands the sacrifices he's doing for her, but she is also leading him to realize an immortality beyond the physical kind.

In the third narrative, Jackman is a sort of Zen buddhist, travelling far into space towards a nebula, enveloped in a huge bubble with the Tree of Life. This is actually far, far into the future. Here he is still on a quest for immortality, with the memory of his wife still haunting him. The Tree of Life is actually part of Izzi, since it has grown beside her grave. So he considers it as she, loving it with the same love he has shown her. It, too, is dying, like Izzi, centuries ago, was dying. He wants to bring the bubble to the nebula because Izzi believed that rebirth lies at the death of a star. While on their journey Tommy finds sustainance at the life-giving properties of the tree's bark. "You give me life," he murmurs to his tree. "We're almost there," he assures her. Such is his love for Izzi. Here we see that Izzi is truly the fountain of his life! Isn't that such an amazing and beautiful way of looking at love? (In addition to the idea that a man can treat his spouse as a queen, to whom he has wholly submitted himself in loyalty and to whom he is ready to sacrifice his whole self, including his life, to be truly united with her forever!)

You have to see this movie to understand it. Or you may perhaps get different interpretations from mine.

I met up with my bro afterwards and saw another movie, An Inconvenient Truth. This is really one movie everyone should see.

United 93

Probably the most powerful, most moving movie I have ever seen in my life (with the exception of The Passion of Christ)...



Watch it!!! It's now showing in the theaters.

The most moving scene in the movie for me was when the passengers of the flight began calling their families and friends on the phone telling them, "I love you, I love you..."

Indeed, that's all that matters in this life. That's all that matters in the end... Love.

The film's official website.

Duh Vinci Code

I watched the Da Vinci Code yesterday with my friend Alvin. Dan Brown is now 240 pesos (120=1 ticket) richer because of the two of us... hehehe. Anyway, the movie was... boring.

My friend said he literally dosed off in the middle of the movie. It was not convincing at all, not even compelling. It was like an ordinary thriller film. Tom Hanks' acting was mediocre, compared to his other films.

The lines outside the Ayala cinemas were amazing: long queues that extended several meters away from the theaters' entrance. Amazing how this movie has become such a hit. The controversy undoubtedly helped make this happen.

Alvin was disappointed because he thought the movie's gonna focus on Da Vinci's paintings themselves, on the supposed "codes", and how they relate or lead to who killed the museum curator, and the whole conspiracy thing of Opus Dei and the Priory of Sion. Painter man gud siya, so he's interested in that.

I find nothing "theatening" in the movie at all. Perhaps many things from the book was left out. I really wish to read the book someday, for the sake of curiosity, then read Carl Olson and Sandra Miesel's "Da Vinci Hoax". (Also visit the blog.)

A very helpful website you might want to visit (by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, by the way): Jesus Decoded.

Also important: the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' pastoral statement.

On a slightly unrelated note: I was reading about incorruptibles this morning and I thought to myself, "This is the thing one should point out to agnostics and atheists -- solid proof for God's existence!"


(Photo above: Saint Bernadette Soubirous)

To watch or not to watch?

Showing na ang Da Vinci Code. It opened last night. I was in Ayala last night and I saw the long line of people outside the cinema.

Hmmm... should I join in and watch the movie? Probably I will. I am just curious. I know many people want to boycott it because they just don't want to put money into Dan Brown's pockets. But I'm just curious. I look at it as a work of fiction, or a mere piece of entertainment. Ah, some people would say, it's a dangerous work of fiction, because there are just too many lies and historical and theological distortions in the novel and movie. Hmmm, that's a good point. But there's really nothing to be afraid of if you're in the side of the truth, right?

I agree with the Archdiocese of Cebu's position, letting people decide for themselves if they should watch the movie or not. As one newspaper columnist said recently, the Da Vinci Code (some people call it the "Duh! Vinci Code") phenomenon, is sort of like a "blessing in disguise", because only now are more and more people talking about the Gospels; only now are more and more people opening their Bibles. There's a renewed interest in Christianity and Jesus.

So yes, there are many historical and theological dictortions in the DVC, and our response as Christians should be to research further the truth behind the wild claims of the novel. The Church's role, too, is to answer its faithful's questions about theology or Church history.

North Country

I watched North Country last Sunday. What a powerful movie. I cried a few times, especially on that scene wherein Josey's father finally stood up for her daughter in front of their company's union meeting. That was very moving, heartbreaking, and triumphant. It's a story about what courage and dignity really means.

I love the song at the end of the movie, when the credits were rolling. It's called "Sweetheart Like You" by Bob Dylan. I downloaded it just now using LimeWire.