An old favorite: check out "The Fountain" on DVD

An atypical transcendent love story, Aronofsky’s sci-fi The Fountain attempts to shed some light on the bigger questions of life and death: why we are here and what it would be like to live forever.

Spanning over a millennia, with three connecting story lines, the easiest way to tell what time period you are in is by how much hair Hugh Jackman has on his head.

The film opens with Jackman as 16th century Spanish conquistador, Tomas, searching for a hidden Mayan temple, which holds the Tree of Life, in order to save Spain and Queen Isabel, played by Rachel Weisz, from the Inquisitor.

In an abrupt shift, a now bald Jackman (Tom Creo) appears to be a 26th century bubble boy recalling memories and floating in space with a tree as his only companion.

Switching to present day, Jackman, slightly hairier, plays determined researcher Dr. Tommy Creo performing tests on monkeys in order to help save his cancer-stricken wife, Izzi (Weisz).

In a daring attempt to save Donovan, the research monkey, Tommy uses the bark from a tree in Guatemala during surgery and later discovers that the monkey almost immediately improves its cognitive skills. Undoubtedly this is the same tree in both the 16th and 26th century eras.

The audience also learns that Izzi is writing a book entitled “The Fountain” about 16th century Spain and its search for the Tree of Life in the Mayan jungles, which suddenly makes the start of the movie a bit clearer.

Izzi also tells Tommy about the nebula Xibalba believed to be the Mayan underworld where the dead find new life. This belief somewhat explains lotus-sitting Jackman floating in a giant, golden orb.

After much confusion as to what is going on, the pieces of the plot seem to come together; however, they are never fully culminated into one final “Voila!” moment, which does not seem accidental.

The visuals and filming, inspired by David Bowie and 2001: A Space Odyssey, are beautiful and the muted yet slightly golden hue to everything is soothing to the eye.

The emotionally driven performances by Weisz and especially Jackman are extremely poignant and heart-felt.

The Fountain with its non-linear format seems to purposefully have the audience’s mind wander in an attempt to make the viewer think, which may not sit well with some folks.

Its messages to love and live because life is finite are apparent after some time. It tries to make you think about the spiritual instead of the physical and that death is inevitable.

Though the film is a bit odd, it is a nice deviation from the Old School’s of our time.