Great Buddy Picture (and very gay too)
This is a great and moving buddy picture. A movie about the desire to recapture the care-free days of young adulthood and childhood.
Al Fountain (appropriately named) is a fountain of wisdom, observing his life and writing witticisms, and in search of the fountain of youth.
There’s a very powerful scene where he finally gets to the lake he remembered as a child. The place has been abandoned to the toxic waste site next door. It really hits us hard as we understand that Fountain’s past as well as our own cannot be entirely recaptured.
But “the kid,” charmingly played by Sam Rockwell, shows Fountain that he can go back if he will allow himself to. I found the tomato fight scene to be fun and enlightening. Don’t we all need to let go and have fun?
I think the film also has strong homosexual undercurrents, although I’m not sure why. There are lots of blatant scenarios that suggest that Fountain and Bucky are romancing each other. And the physical expressions of love are very homoerotic. When Bucky is wounded from the beating and Fountain is nursing him back to health, note Bucky’s hand rests right in Fountain’s lap, if for a brief time. Then Bucky cries and Fountain hugs him.
When they are crawling in the corn field away from the cops, Fountain is kind of riding Rockwell as they both crawl. Fountain reaches out and pushes Bucky’s butt to get moving—a very homoerotic scene.
When Fountain checks the distributor cap in Bucky’s car, when they first meet on the side of the road, you’ll note Bucky quickly glances down at Fountain’s backside as he looks under the car hood. Then let’s not forget the full frontal nudity of Bucky. Very homoerotic. Couple that with the full frontal of Fountain in his shower at the beginning, and it is clear to me that the filmmaker is showcasing the male form.
So I’m wondering why, if there is so much suggestion of homoeroticism and a homosexual relationship blooming, why then did the filmmaker choose to have them both sleep with the women? Were they doing that to compensate for their longings for each other? Or was the filmmaker compensating for too many undertones of homosexuality?
I didn’t like that Fountain slept with the woman at all. I think the movie would have been so much sweeter had he kept to his convictions and just talked all night with the girl. Fountain has a great wife and kid at home, and he is a decent good person. He should not have to commit adultery to find himself and the energy of youth again.
All in all, though, I give the film high marks for warmth, charm. It’s a really, really heartwarming film.