Fountain of Youth

There are substance directors, and there are style directors. Substance directors, like Steven Spielberg, don’t have an instantly recognizable filmmaking signature but fit their style to each project based on what the story needs. (Indiana Jones isn’t at all like Schindler’s List, and neither is like West Side Story.) Others, like Michael Bay, are style directors. The individual movies he makes can be pretty shallow on their merits, but his signature style is so bonkers that you don’t care.

Guy Ritchie is definitely a style director. Most of his films are pretty standard action or heist movies with paper-thin archetypes for characters and formulaic plots, whether they’re detectives (Sherlock Holmes), gangsters (The Gentlemen), or spies (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.). But what makes his movies so entertaining is the energetic way he tells these stories. There’s a rough-and-tumble, wisecracking rhythm to how his characters talk, fight, and relate to each other that makes his stories wildly enjoyable.

Guy Ritchie’s Fountain of Youth is what happens when Ritchie’s magic gets diluted. When his style is present, the movie is a blast, but when it’s not, it becomes a chore. Unfortunately, the majority of the film’s second half lacks that signature style.

The film follows two estranged siblings, the charismatic adventurer Luke Perdue (John Krasinski) and his steady sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman), who join forces to seek the legendary Fountain of Youth. Using historical clues, they embark on an epic quest filled with adventure, and if they’re successful, the mythical fountain could grant them immortality.

The first half of the film might be your basic globe-trotting adventure, but it’s still lots of fun. Krasinski is endlessly charming. The banter between characters is razor sharp, and the lines that get a genuine laugh come often. The fight and chase scenes are filmed and choreographed with a giddy thrill that keeps you glued to your seat.

The banter and the rhythm of the action are still distinctly Ritchie, but even here, it’s obvious that he’s restraining himself. The movie is shot and lit in a pretty standard modern action film aesthetic without any distinct over-the-top grime or sheen, and the action and threatening situations are kept to a safe PG-13.

Unfortunately, in the second half, the film starts to try to take itself seriously, and the cracks start to show. The characters and plot are too thin to play it straight. Luke and Charlotte fall out multiple times without ever escalating or going deeper emotionally into their conflict. Who the villain is, what the “twist” about the fountain is—these are spoon-fed to us really early, and are all things we’ve seen in nearly every Indiana Jones knockoff. By the end we are sleepwalking through a dull CGI-fest of an encounter with the fountain—where they literally explain the message to us with narration. I understand—and even agree with—the impulse to make the second half of an action film a bit more serious to give the climax more weight. But if you don’t have anything weighty to say during that half, taking away the fun doesn’t help.

This is a shame, because the way the movie talks about God is more reverent than typical for a modern Hollywood film. In Fountain of Youth, many of the clues the heroes are looking for are distinctly Christian—whether it’s paintings or Bibles. And at one point, one of the characters mentions that the stories say God wants it hidden, which they actually treat seriously.

Not every movie needs to be deep. But if it’s not going to be deep, it should at least be fun. Fountain of Youth starts out with a lot of potential to be a cheesy good time. But for whatever reason, this action movie about eternal life can’t maintain its own youthful pace for a measly two hours.