Fountain of Youth, the new film starring Natalie Portman and John Krasinski, has become a streaming hit around the world despite failing to impress critics or audiences.
The film, by Snatch (2000) and Sherlock Holmes (2009) director Guy Ritchie, sees estranged siblings Luke (Krasinski) and Charlotte Purdue (Portman), who are both archaeologists, reunite in the search for the mythical fountain of youth.
Their journey sees them scour the globe using clues hidden in Renaissance paintings, which take them to locations ranging from Bangkok to Ireland.
The film, which also stars Eiza González, Domhnall Gleeson and Stanley Tucci, is the latest from the fast-working Ritchie, whose recent films include 2024’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and 2023’s The Covenant.
Despite the movie borrowing obvious influences from much-loved movies such as Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989) and National Treasure (2004), critics have not been kind to the film, which currently has just a 36 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In a two-star review, The Independent’s film critic, Clarisse Loughrey, said “there is an aggravating, smart-alec streak to the dialogue” and “the sets have the cartoonish look of a themed escape room”.
Equally damning was Kevin Maher in The Times who said the film was “chaotic, numbing and dull”. Meanwhile, William Bibbiani wrote in The Wrap: “I would seriously consider cutting off one of my own fingers if it meant I didn’t have to spend two hours alone in a room with John Krasinski’s protagonist from Guy Ritchie’s Fountain of Youth.”
Audiences have also been unimpressed, giving it just a 44 per cent score overall on Rotten Tomatoes. With all that being said, it hasn’t deterred people from seeking the film out and turning it into a streaming success.
The film was released on Apple TV+ on Friday (23 May) and according to Flixpatrol, via CBR, the movie immediately debuted at number one on Apple TV+ in 99 countries upon its day of release. In the few days since its release, it has also entered the top 10 on Prime Video in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.
Whether the success of the film will see Ritchie make a permanent switch to action-adventure movies remains to be seen but he has certainly shown himself capable of working in numerous genres in recent years, having also directed Disney’s live-action Aladdin adaptation in 2019 and historical epic King Arthur: Legend of the Sword in 2017.
“I found myself feeling like if I wasn’t too careful, I was ending up in a comedy-action-gangster genre, of which, of course, I’m comfortable and enjoy,” Ritchie told Entertainment Weekly in 2024. “But at some point, I thought, you have to spread your wings as a writer-director.”
