Fountain of Youth

Fountain of Youth

A Promising Treasure Hunt Lost in Shifting Sands

★★½☆☆

A "can't miss" prospect of fun that unfortunately devolves into a confusing mess.

Directed by the usually reliable Guy Ritchie, Fountain of Youth starts as a promising old-school adventure but quickly loses its way. Despite a charismatic cast led by Natalie Portman and John Krasinski, the film suffers from a truncated script that feels like a ten-episode series brutally cut down to under two hours. The result is an uneven experience with abrupt location changes and characters left with little to do.

"Fountain of Youth was obviously built on dry, uneven, unstable, constantly shifting sand. Literally and figuratively."

— Review Perspective

🎬 Cast & Crew

• Director: Guy Ritchie
• Starring: Natalie Portman, John Krasinski, Eiza González
• Supporting: Domhnall Gleeson, Carmen Ejogo, Laz Alonso
• Writer: James Vanderbilt

The Vision

Guy Ritchie brings his trademark kinetic visual style to this globetrotting mystery, but the ambition of the set pieces often outshines the logic of the plot. While the first act offers genuine thrills, the second and third acts struggle with cohesion. The "multiple cooks in the kitchen" feel of the production leaves the ambitious ideas and massive sets feeling ultimately Broadway-hollow and unsatisfying.

🎬 Cinephile Fun Facts

• Apple Original: The film was produced specifically for Apple TV+, part of their ongoing push into high-budget, star-driven action features.
• Global Scale: Filming spanned multiple continents, including significant on-location shoots in Bangkok, Thailand, and Vienna, Austria.
• Vanderbilt Script: The screenplay was written by James Vanderbilt, the writer behind Zodiac and the recent Scream soft-reboots.

✅ Pros

• Genuinely promising and fun first act.
• Talented, charismatic ensemble cast doing their best with the material.
• Ambitious visual ideas and large-scale set pieces.

❌ Cons

• Confusing, incoherent story that lacks general logic.
• Problematic third act that fails to provide a satisfying payoff.
• Truncated pacing that leaves characters underdeveloped.

🏆 Final Verdict

Fountain of Youth is essentially a mild diversion—a time killer best suited for background viewing. Despite its talented crew and "can't miss" concept, it serves as a reminder of how difficult it truly is to build a satisfying movie on an unstable script.

View original review on Letterboxd