Guy Ritchie meets Indiana Jones? OK, he's made films about Sherlock Holmes, King Arthur and Aladdin, but this is a surprising move from somebody whose stock in trade is the geezer movie.
Yet his latest, Fountain Of Youth, added today [Friday, May 23] on Apple TV Plus, has no sign of his current Statham/Grant/Hartnett crew, and the mythical quest of the title has more than a few echoes of Indy about it.
Leading the cast are John Krasinski and Natalie Portman as a pair of estranged siblings who set off in search of the fountain, the ultimate in anti-aging for anybody who drinks from it.
Krasinski is a treasure hunter, Portman a gallery curator, and their hunt for the magical spring takes them all over the world. At the same time, they struggle to get on with each other and come up against people who are on the same mission but for their own, very different, ends – and that includes one of their own crew.
For Ritchie, however, it’s an unexpected deviation from his usual style of movie, yet one which seems to suit him, making the most of his extensive directorial experience. There’s no war setting this time, or serious criminal shenanigans, and, in the main, any violence is bloodless, so he’s clearly aiming for something softer that will appeal to families.
And he’s brought together a quality cast, with just one actor who's worked with him before. She’s Eiza Gonzalez, who plays Krasinski and Portman’s nemesis in the search for the mythical spring and was in last year’s The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare. With a role in the director’s forthcoming In The Grey (as yet without a release date after being dropped from the schedule at the start of the year) there’s a better than even chance we can expect to see her in more of his productions.
The Wicked Bible
High speed car chases and crashes, glamorous globetrotting — even the sewers made famous by The Third Man in a fleeting appearance during a stopover in Vienna — and kick-ass fights are all part of the recipe for a treasure hunting adventure and here Ritchie beefs them up with myths, legends, and a few history lessons along the way.
Heard of The Wicked Bible? If you haven’t — and it genuinely exists — you’ll learn about it here, although somehow the film has also acquired its very own copy. And, while the journey to the fountain is full of twists, turns and occasionally frustrating false starts, the climax itself and the intricate visuals that go with it are worth the wait.
Back in front of the camera in between A Quiet Place duties, but without Indy’s fedora, Krasinski adds a schoolboy charm to his usual nice guy persona, so there are plenty of opportunities for barbed banter between him and his estranged and disapproving sister, as played by Portman. Stanley Tucci puts in an all-too-brief appearance, masterminding Gonzalez and her gang in their efforts to find the fountain, but from Vatican City. Again.
All the elements are there for an appealing treasure hunt/heist flick and Ritchie executes it with a wry wit and a twinkle in his eye. There’s a real sense of him enjoying working with a different cast and generally moving outside of his comfort zone, especially as there’s more than a whiff of a new franchise as the movie draws to a close. But there’s no sign of one on the horizon. Look at the director’s list of forthcoming projects, and it reads like he’s back to his usual stomping ground. Road House 2 is in the works, with Jake Gyllenhaal back in the lead role and reuniting with Ritchie after true-life war drama The Covenant (2023).
The Young Sherlock TV series is destined for Prime Video and could be on our screens this year, while The Gentlemen season 2 is lined up for 2026.
Whether it gets a sequel or not, Fountain Of Youth shows there’s more to Ritchie than tough guy movies. His Sherlock Holmes franchise and the unexpectedly successful Aladdin (2019) remake for Disney pointed towards that, and it’s risen to the surface again. Could we be in for a Ritchie-ssance? We’d love to see it ……
Fountain Of Youth is on Apple TV Plus now.
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