Film Review: Fountain of Youth

Fountain of Youth, released in May on Apple TV, follows two estranged siblings, Luke Purdue (John Krasinski) and Charlotte Purdue (Natalie Portman), on their quest to find the mystery of, well… the Fountain of Youth.

Luke is intelligent, he loves history, adventure and he’s got that Krasinski/Jim Halpert (maybe a little too Jim Halpert) charm. His sister Charlotte also enjoys adventure, although she’s lost herself during recent years due to juggling bringing up her son and a turbulent marriage which has drawn to its end at the movie’s beginning.

Archaeologist Luke is financed by a rich dying man (Domhall Gleeson) to find the Fountain of Youth and elicits help from his recently fired and divorced sister, Charlotte a museum curator, to track down paintings and reveal their secrets to the location of the fountain.

Without going into major spoiler territory, some fun things happen in the film involving some bad guys, a bad guy, oh and a bad guy that is maybe not so bad, which all aid in trying to stop this sibling duo reach their pursuit of the fountain.

So, you may expect from a film directed by Guy Ritchie, who has a plethora of gangster bangers and movie blockbusters under his belt, an action-adventure movie under his directional talons to be of high calibre, not to mention it featuring two fantastic actors of our time. But here’s where I ring the old boo gong: BOO.

I set out hoping for something new that could satisfy my love for action, adventure, and treasure hunting films. Something, a little Indiana, a bit National Treasure, perhaps a dash of The Mummy, or just anything Brenden Fraser-y (let’s be honest).

But what I got was a stale piece-of-bread adventure film. With a great cast, a reasonably fun trailer and some exciting visuals, I had high hopes, but this film was very lack lustre. Don’t get me wrong, I love a cheesy journey movie, the new Jumanji films were works of art, but Fountain of Youth was trashy, and not in a good way.

The film began with a painting theft from a British gallery, reminding me of that scene in Bean (1997), you know the one, inevitably lifting my spirits and setting me up for a good time. But as I watched more, I just felt that something was a little off.

The dialogue felt strange, almost forced, it felt as though I was watching the pre-filming rehearsals - like the script was being read aloud by the actors for the first time. Alongside this, there was little-to-no chemistry between the main two actors, their entire sibling relationship didn’t feel like it had bones, it was all jelly really.

For an adventure movie the pacing was often bizarre. There were moments of unnecessary fleshing out of back stories, lots of talking and explaining – which is where I began losing interest. Then, something relatively exciting began to happen, before the pace inevitably slowed again to a plod, it really felt like an unemotional rollercoaster.

From the offset of pushing the play button I found it hard to understand what emotions this film was trying to convey. Was it a comedy? Was it a serious adventure? Was it a little bit heisty? It didn’t feel like it adhered to any sort of finite category, I couldn’t quite work out what it wanted from me. Sometimes I don’t mind being left to guess, but it just didn’t work for Fountain of Youth.

A redeeming quality for this film however comes from the sets, with a great deal of beautiful on-set locations, historic buildings and structures, a bizarrely unsubmerged sunken ship floating on air bags (ok sorry I’m allowed one spoiler), and a nice big old library. Oh, and I must admit that there were some good special effects (which I won’t spoil). But it ends there really.

If this movie was made in the early 2000s, perhaps it could have had some charm, even become a classic. But being made in 2025 has left it feeling somewhat empty, lacking and albeit try-hard.

Perhaps my slightly harsh review stems from the high expectations of the director and the previous work of Krasinski and Portman, or my allegiance to adventure movies of mastery such as The Mummy and Indiana Jones. But it could simply be that this film was a fountain of yawn.