“The Fountain” is a pretty tough sell. Written and directed by Darren Aronofsky (of “Pi” and “Requiem for a Dream”), the film possesses all the deep philosophical complexity and craftsmanship of an art-house flick but has been treated as a major studio release. While advertised as a romance epic covering a thousand-year span, “The Fountain” is most concerned with confronting and challenging concepts of man’s mortality, and ponders what happens when one is met with imminent death face-to-face. The result is a film that is all at once moving, frustrating, beautiful, off-putting, thought-provoking and confusing, but a movie with true depth and even entertainment value no less. It may seem like an arthouse flick unnecessarily given the big-budget treatment, but for those willing to take on the experience, “The Fountain” delivers.

Hugh Jackman plays Tomas, Dr. Tommy Creo and Tom, three men living in 16th century Spain, year-2000 America, and outer space 500 years in the future, respectively. That these men may or may not actually be the same man is a part of the mystery, as all three search for a cure to what Tommy refers to as the “disease” of death. Rachel Weisz plays his counterpart in each time (Queen Isabel, Izzi and a more abstract unnamed role in the future), the love for which he fights to achieve immortality. Apart from several scenes from the ever-outstanding Ellen Burstyn, the two leads occupy the screen for a very large majority of the time - and, thankfully, they each bring enough complexity to their roles to sustain such a major undertaking.

Really, though, the star of the film is Aronofsky because the film relies most heavily on his ability to weave between the three times with ease, to ask the deep philosophical questions regarding man’s existence while avoiding pretentiousness, and to create a distinct artistic style for not one but three different eras. Whether it be a Spanish conquistador’s travels through South American jungles, an impressively unique yet somehow believable future, or the simple year-200 laboratory in which Tommy works, Aronofsky handles the job brilliantly. He films beautifully, as scenes on an icy lake look just as stunning as a nebula in the farthest reaches of the galaxy. And as for pacing, for a film that tackles such lofty concepts (Should man want to live forever? Is death an end, or a beginning?), “The Fountain” is surprisingly brisk. It does not succumb to the overblown preaching (or what is perceived as preaching) that often detracts mainstream audiences from seeing “art” films.

The storyline is at once very simple and very complex - a man loves a woman and seeks a way to live with her forever. Aronofsky imbues that simple idea with deeper meaning through such elements as the love between the married Jackman and a cancer-stricken Weisz in the present time period, a conquistador’s search for the biblical Tree of Life 500 years before or a cosmonaut’s voyage through space in a giant glass sphere 500 years after. With that complexity, though, comes the necessary frustration with accepting that not everything is going to be black and white by the story’s end, and that some may eventually become bored or lost in the twisting storylines.

I expected that moment to come, but for me it never did. “The Fountain” is a truly impressive achievement because while now I may not be able to entirely explain everything going on in the film (especially its intense and cryptic final minute), it is a solid love story, a fascinating rumination on the relationship between life and death and an altogether smart and entertaining viewing experience.