Film Review: Fountain Of Youth
The Best Secrets Are The Hardest To Find
INTRODUCTION
This is a quick review of the newly released film Fountain Of Youth. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.
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PLOT
Via Letterboxd: A treasure-hunting mastermind assembles a team for a life-changing adventure. But to outwit and outrun threats at every turn, he’ll need someone even smarter than he is - his estranged sister.
REVIEW
Smack in the middle of a Memorial Day weekend already stacked with the long-awaited farewell of the Mission: Impossible franchise and Disney’s latest live-action nostalgia grab with Lilo & Stitch, Guy Ritchie quietly drops his newest film straight to streaming on Apple TV+.
Ritchie, a director whose filmography runs the full spectrum from "movies I really like" to "movies I'd rather pretend never happened," takes a detour into family-friendly action-adventure territory this time. Fountain of Youth is the name, and yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like - a classic treasure-hunting premise centered around a brother-sister duo racing to discover the legendary spring of eternal life.
The cast? Stacked. John Krasinski, Eiza González, and Domhnall Gleeson lead the charge, flanked by none other than Oscar nominees Natalie Portman and Stanley Tucci. It’s an ensemble that feels like it could’ve easily fronted a summer blockbuster that shows up on the big screen, and would’ve in another time - yet here they are, debuting from your living room.
From a production standpoint, how it’s shot, how it looks, sounds, and is scored, Fountain of Youth does, at first glance, feel like something that could’ve easily warranted a theatrical release. There’s a glossy, big-screen sheen to a lot of it. The camera moves with purpose, the sound design has potential, and the score does its job. For stretches, it hits all the familiar beats of a family-friendly adventure flick you’d catch at your local multiplex. At least, that’s the case when the wonky visual effects and green screen don’t completely pull you out of it.
I couldn’t help but wonder - Why did this go straight to streaming? Apple, after all, has given some of its originals a shot at the big screen, even if just for limited theatrical runs. But as the film chugged along, especially as the plot started to feel more like a checklist of genre tropes than a compelling story, I started to understand why. This wasn’t a case of a hidden gem being quietly dumped; it was a film that felt “good enough” to watch at home. The kind of movie one won’t mind half-watching on a long weekend.
While the premise holds plenty of promise, the movie just can’t get out of its own way. Time and again, it stumbles over itself, tripping up any momentum it manages to build. The pacing is one of the biggest culprits for me; it’s rushed, breathless, constantly jumping from one major story beat to the next without ever letting anything land. There’s no time for tension to build or for emotional beats to settle; it’s all plot, no patience.
Character arcs? Half-ass at best. There’s an attempt at shoehorning in some romantic tension between John Krasinski and Eiza González, but it never clicks, and the writing of their dynamic doesn’t do them favors. The chemistry feels manufactured, like someone in the writer’s room just assumed that two attractive leads equals automatic sparks. It doesn’t.
Then there’s a major third-act twist that lands with all the grace of a last-minute rewrite. It genuinely feels like something the writers made up on the spot, hoping it would pass as clever rather than completely unearned. If anything it feels so predictable that you roll your eyes at how easily you saw it coming.
But perhaps the film’s most glaring misstep is the casting of Krasinski in the lead role. As charming as he’s been in other projects with his deadpan wit, he just doesn’t sell the whole globe-trotting, wisecracking adventurer thing, at all. He’s missing that loose, slightly chaotic charisma that guys like Robert Downey Jr. or even Chris Pratt can bring to roles like this. Here, he feels like he’s doing a soft cosplay of that archetype, and despite his best efforts, it never quite gels. As much as he tries to make it work, he just feels miscast from the jump to me.
I kept hoping the film would at least compensate for its weaknesses with a few standout action set pieces or some clever twists in its globe-trotting adventure. But that payoff never really comes. Instead of leaning into the fun, high-energy escapism the premise promises, the movie spends far too much time bogging us down in repetitive back-and-forths between Krasinski and Portman. Their dynamic, while occasionally charming in theory, just doesn’t have the spark or momentum to carry entire stretches of the film.
And when the adventure sequences do show up, they’re mild. Almost shockingly tame, especially when you consider what Guy Ritchie is capable of when he’s in his element. These moments lack the flair, tension, and stylish grit we’ve seen him pull off in everything from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to Sherlock Holmes. It feels like he’s holding back, or worse, maybe like he was phoning it in.
Which brings me to my final point. This doesn’t feel like a Guy Ritchie film. Sure, he’s done studio work before, but even in those, you can usually feel some of his signature personality. Here, though? It’s absent. Fountain of Youth doesn’t just feel like low-tier Ritchie, it’s completely stripped of what makes his best work pop. Honestly, this might be his worst film since 2017’s King Arthur.
As fun as the premise sounds, as stacked as the cast is, and as much personality as Guy Ritchie can inject into a film when he’s on his game, Fountain of Youth ends up being his biggest misfire in years. It’s the kind of movie that looks like it should work on paper but just never clicks in execution. A glossy, overqualified cast and a globe-trotting setup can't save it from thin character work, lifeless pacing, and a surprising lack of the Ritchie flair that usually elevates even his messiest efforts.
At the end of the day, this one feels right at home as a straight-to-streaming release; not because it’s some hidden gem, but because it’s the kind of film you half-watch on a lazy weekend and promptly forget by Monday. No great treasure to be found here, and disappointingly little fun along the way. I give it a sleepy C+. A misadventure better left uncharted.
GRADING
