Fountain of Youth should have been a slam dunk for Apple TV+. There is great talent attached behind the camera with director Guy Ritchie and in front with John Krasinski and Natalie Portman as leads. Paired with an interesting premise and a globe-trotting adventure, this could have easily been a quality addition to the streamer’s reputation, sharing few but solid features. Unfortunately, Fountain of Youth is incredibly disappointing, in more ways than one.
Fountain of Youth tries to copy better, classic adventure films
It’s instantly apparent that Fountain of Youth is trying to channel some blend of Indiana Jones and National Treasure. These two were known for their intricate puzzle solutions, historically essential monuments, and dates woven into entertaining mythology. They also featured highly likable leads who may have been arrogant, but still endearing. This is the most glaring departure for Krasinski and Portman, Luke and Charlotte Purdue, siblings who have taken polar opposite trajectories after their father’s death. Luke carries on their father’s criminal pursuits, while Charlotte instead decides to pursue an authentic career as an art gallery curator.
Annoying characters exist in media, sure, but Krasinski manages to elevate his most popular role, Jim from The Office, and amplify it to utterly unbearable levels. It’s actually impressive how easy it is to outright hate the character of Luke within minutes of being introduced. Then there’s Portman who is constantly a fish out of water during the entire 2-hour runtime. Putting them together didn’t hurt much, but it certainly failed to help at all. Both Luke and Charlotte lack any real chemistry as siblings, instead opting to fall back on 90s TV tropes on how a brother and sister would act with one another.
The “true” villain reveal is so evidently obvious, it lacks any real punch
There’s a lot of relief that this didn’t get pushed out onto theaters. The repeated “hints” about “who the real villain was” were as subtle as being smashed over the head with a club. Although the character’s introduction doesn’t immediately give it away, it’s one setting over from deducing the twist for yourself. There’s an attempt to subvert this with the consistent squabbles between Luke and Esme (Eiza Gonzalez), but her restraint in their fights is as apparent as the aforementioned villain reveal.
Esme is trying to keep Luke from reaching the Fountain of Youth in a protective setting, knowing the world isn’t ready for the myth and its power. When the Fountain of Youth starts to dig into this secretive society, it almost makes me perk up and pay attention to something in the film. Sadly, it’s surface-level and possibly intended to do light world-building and set up something else.
Apple TV+’s Fountain of Youth lacks charm and humor
With the cast assembled, there should have been a better effort to make this inspiring or funny, but Fountain of Youth fails on both ends. The characters, and subsequently, the leads, all lack charm, and the quippy puns just suck out any possibility of making these characters likeable. The side characters feel tacked on, the antagonists are painfully average, and the “family” theme is crudely included, as if it were an afterthought.
There is little saving grace in Fountain of Youth, even though the visuals are quality and the number of locales visited rival those of a James Bond-level adventure. It does bounce around the world to several locations, which is the bare minimum for the concept of this story. Even with all these beautiful locations being showcased, this is not enough as recourse for the rest of this movie.
Fountain of Youth is now streaming on Apple TV+! Let us know what you think of it on social media @MyCosmicCircus or @TheCosmicCircus.com on Bluesky.
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