Advance word of mouth sold The Fountain as a dense, pompous, plodding existential muddle. And it is. But at its center is a sentimental heart, in the form of married couple Tommy and Izzi (Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz). Tommy is a doctor desperately searching for a cure for Izzi's terminal cancer; Jackman and Weisz are nothing short of amazing, and their scenes together are achingly poignant.

But a great love story isn't enough for director Darren Aronofsky. Instead, he constantly cuts to the interconnected adventures of Tommy in the past, as a Spanish conquistador, and Tom the future, as a guru type protecting the tree of life in what appears to be a snowglobe floating in space. (Seriously.)

A little surrealism to advance the theme of the movie is brave; a lot of tedious navel-gazing is just selfish. These fine actors deserve better—and so do we.