Fountain of Youth is the sixth film directed by Guy Ritchie released since the beginning of the decade, and the first of three in 2025; Ritchie has already wrapped production on the military thriller In the Grey, and is in the midst of filming the dark comedy Wife & Dog. In addition to the second season of Netflix’s The Gentlemen (based on his film of the same name), Ritchie has also helmed several episodes of the Paramount Plus crime series MobLand, and served as the creator and showrunner of the upcoming Prime Video show Young Sherlock Holmes. There may not be another filmmaker of this generation who has worked so rapidly; Steven Soderbergh has a similarly excessive output, but his films tend to cost a fraction of Ritchie’s.
This decade began with a supposed comeback for Ritchie, who’d spent many years as the director of critically-panned studio blockbusters, including the live-action remake of Aladdin, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., King Arthur: Legend of the Swords, and two Sherlock Holmes films with Robert Downey Jr. The Gentlemen, Wrath of Man, and the underrated Operation Fortune served as a return to the energetic, colorful crime comedies that had initiated his career. In the aftermath of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, Ritchie felt like England’s answer to Quentin Tarantino.
Fountain of Youth is an indication that he should refrain from studio-noted, four quadrant works of spectacle. While it’s not technically based on a work of previously existing intellectual property, Fountain of Youth isn’t original; the script is a loose reconfiguration of plot points from National Treasure, The Da Vinci Code, The Mummy, and several Indiana Jones films. Fountain of Youth may have been disposable entertainment had it been given the polish of a theatrical release, but its debut on Apple TV+ shows corners that were cut. Between its cheap CGI, lazily-constructed set pieces, and unpolished dialogue, Fountain of Youth is intended for an audience that can’t complain about something included within their monthly subscription fee.
John Krasinski has the lead role of Luke Purdue, a treasure hunter who’s searched the globe fir clues about the Fountain of Youth. After the recovery of a Renaissance-era painting, Luke’s reunited with his sister, Charlotte (Natalie Portman), who’s served as the director of a museum gallery. The two siblings have been absent from each other’s lives in the wake of their father’s death. Charlotte’s in the midst of a nasty court proceeding with her ex-husband, as they’ve both claimed custody of their son, Thomas (Benjamin Chivers). Luke has a comparatively carefree lifestyle; he’s traveled the world with his fellow adventurers Patrick Murphy (Laz Alonso), Deb McCall (Carmen Ejogo), and their benefactor Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson).
What’s most surprising about Fountain of Youth is its lack of personality. Krasinski’s believable in any scene where he’s required to jump, punch, or run away from danger, but there’s never the suggestion that he has the passion for history of Indiana Jones, or the genius-level intellect of Robert Langdon. Krasinski’s also a poor fit for Ritchie’s dialogue, which has an emphasis on one-liners and playful insults; Luke’s quickly established as an obnoxious man-child who has no real justification for putting his friends and family in danger.
Portman’s saddled with the bulk of the film’s exposition, and forced to deliver nonsensical monologues about the hidden signs that point to the Fountain’s location. A majority of the mystery-solving in Fountain of Youth is centered on characters that point to diagrams on screens. Ejogo and Alonso are given interchangeable parts, and any moments with Chivers as Charlotte’s son feel like a tacked-on piece of forced sentimentality. Gleeson’s the only actor who understands what the tone should’ve been; by glowering and smirking his way through nonsense, he’s essentially a live-action Looney Tunes character.
Great treasure-hunting films are required to give its characters some form of personal investment in the MacGuffin; in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the hunt for the Holy Grail is linked to the reunion between Indy and his father. The notion of eternal life is rarely brought up in Fountain of Youth, as there’s so little grittiness within the action scenes that there’s never a threat that a main character would die. Although it’s briefly hinted that Charlotte and Luke have been haunted by their father’s passing, the origin of their interest in treasure is never revealed. Fountain of Youth is confident that its viewers are aware of the archetypes that it has plagiarized, but has shown no effort to flesh out the margins with any degree of specificity.
The mythology of the Fountain is also left underdeveloped. This lack of background is extended to the film’s various batches of villains, who are too incompetent to be taken seriously. It’s not a surprise that the last stretch of Fountain of Youth, set within the Pyramid of Giza, is its most entertaining, as it’s the only portion of the film engaged in legitimate history. Although there’s a degree of charm to the low-quality visual effects, it's strange that a production bankrolled by a company like Apple doesn’t look any better than a TNT television film from the early-2000s. This is also the moment in which the Indiana Jones comparisons are the most evident, as the reveal of the artifact’s power is nearly an exact replication of key moments from Steven Spielberg’s adventure series.
Curiously, the momentum of Fountain of Youth is halted by two scenes that involve the secondary antagonist Esme (Eiza González) in conversation with an enigmatic leader known as “The Elder” (Stanley Tucci), whose knowledge of the Fountain’s lineage provided more exposition. It’s possible that these scenes were added within a reshoot, and not only because Tucci’s scenes take place in the Vatican City, where he recently appeared in for Conclave. Tucci’s an award-winning actor, so to deny him the chance to appear in any moments of substance is indication of a hastily added post-production alteration to the script. The only other explanation is that it’s to establish his role in a sequel, which given the quality of Fountain of Youth, is unlikely to ever materialize.