Fountain of Youth Parent Guide

After an adventurous childhood traveling the globe with her archaeologist father, Charlotte Purdue (Natalie Portman) is living a respectable life in London as a mother and museum curator. Then two giant curveballs knock her life off course. First, her adulterous husband decides to make custody of their eleven-year-old son, Thomas (Benjamin Chivers) a point of contention in their heretofore simple divorce. Second, a famous painting is stolen from the museum. By her brother.

Luke Purdue (John Krasinski) has no interest in a mundane existence. Living by his father’s dictum, “The reward is the journey; not the prize at the end of it.”, Luke’s been involved in one wild quest after another. Now he’s been hired by a terminally ill billionaire, Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson) to help him find the mythical Fountain of Youth, in the hopes that it can save Carver’s life. There’s just one catch: the clues to the fountain’s location have been hidden in the paintings of Renaissance masters and in famous books. Luke has already stolen several of them, but he needs Charlotte’s help to locate the remaining items and crack the code.

Charlotte’s look of incredulous disdain as Luke explains his quest is the appropriate attitude to take towards the entire production. The movie is completely bonkers – from the insane raising of part of RMS Lusitania to the fight scene in the venerable Austrian National Library to the unbelievable Indiana-Jones-style set pieces at the Pyramids of Giza. It’s also chaotic because Luke and his crew aren’t the only people involved in the quest. Throughout the film, he’s pursued by a determined Interpol officer (Arian Moayed), a vengeful flunky (Steve Tran) hunting him on behalf of a nameless victim of Luke’s thefts, and a mysterious woman named Esme (Eiza González), who’s working for an unknown figure and towards whom Luke is strongly attracted. There’s a lot going on here and despite the movie’s brisk pace, it can sometimes feel a bit muddled.

I have no doubt Fountain of Youth will be a hit with action fans. This production successfully mashes together National Treasure and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and if it doesn’t blaze any new trails, it still provides plenty of absurdly complicated puzzles, elaborate feats of ancient engineering, exotic global sightseeing, and supernatural treasure. Throw in chases, fight scenes, and some wisecracking, and this movie will deliver the thrills and laughs that genre fans expect.

That said, the film comes with some significant caveats. First is the violence. As expected, the movie is chock full of physical combat (including two attempted strangulations), shootouts (some with fatal results), and scenes of knife violence. Cars are driven recklessly, resulting in crashes, and are also blown up. In addition, women are twice sedated without their consent. People also suffer as a result of supernatural power, but I can’t say anymore without giving away the plot. What I can point out is that alcohol is consumed by several adults, and champagne is given to a child: it’s later implied that he drank too much of it.

In addition to the normal negative content issues, I was also struck by two unique red flags in this film. The first is that Charlotte, now a wanted fugitive, takes her son along on a trip that is bound to be extremely dangerous, and which would disqualify any parent from having custody in any jurisdiction. The second red flag comes from Luke, as he tries to encourage Charlotte to join forces by reminding her of her past self: “When you said no to an adventure you really meant yes.” I’m not sure how loudly I can scream this into the void – when women say no, they have the right to be believed. I realize that this comment isn’t made in a sexual context, but the constant repetition of the rape myth – when women say no, they mean yes – is incredibly socially toxic and needs to end. Now.

My concerns aside, Fountain of Youth will find an audience looking for a mindless popcorn flick. If you’re prepared to turn your brain into the “off” position and can overlook the negative content, you’ll probably have fun. But I make no guarantees.