There are a lot of very promising elements at work in Fountain of Youth, the new adventure film from director Guy Ritchie and writer James Vanderbilt. It’s got a quest for the mythical fountain at its core, an all-star cast primed with natural charisma, a proven action filmmaker at its helm, and the promise of globe-hopping, even swashbuckling, adventure baked into its plot.
There’s so much going for Fountain of Youth, in fact, that it takes a moment or two to notice that something’s not quite right here. The movie stars are present, the film looks slick and shiny, and the adventure doesn’t ever let up, but something about it ultimately rings hollow, and by the second hour, you’re left wondering what the point of all of this is, at least until the characters outright explain it to you without any real emotional payoff. By the end, all that promise is largely squandered, leaving us with all the ingredients of a fun movie, but little of the satisfaction of seeing one.
John Krasinski and Natalie Portman star as Luke and Charlotte Purdue, siblings and children of a famous treasure hunter who, after their father’s death, are estranged. Charlotte’s settled down for a quiet life as a museum curator in London, while Luke is still hopping around the globe, chasing down treasure and getting into trouble. When Luke suddenly pops back up in Charlotte’s life, mid-art heist, she wants nothing to do with him, at least until his antics cause her to lose her job. But it’s OK, because Luke has a plan, a team, and a financial benefactor (Domhnall Gleeson) in his corner.
See, Luke believes he’s finally on the trail of the fabled Fountain of Youth, but if he’s going to make it all the way to the end of that trail, he needs Charlotte’s help and expertise in unraveling the secrets hidden in a group of artworks that supposedly point the way. Charlotte reluctantly agrees, and the siblings set off on an adventure around the globe, with a mysterious and deadly woman (Eiza González) and an Interpol agent (Arian Moayed) on their tails.
Now, I’m not one to nitpick movies usually, because we’re all having fun playing pretend on the silver screen, but Fountain of Youth launches its quest for the title destination with what feels like a derailing bit of storytelling. Luke reveals that he’s found a long-lost painting that was stolen from Boston’s Gardner Museum in 1990, and then unveils … a painting that was not only never stolen, but is on display in a different American museum right now. Does this matter in terms of the plot? Not really, but it does blow up the idea that this is a treasure hunt rooted in art history when, you know, basic art history is neglected for no real reason (they could have just picked a different painting). It’s lazy and puzzling, and unfortunately it’s a bellwether for the rest of the narrative.
Vanderbilt’s script, an original story, is clearly inspired by other successful treasure hunt pictures ranging from The Da Vinci Code to The Mummy to, of course, Indiana Jones, and on the surface level it succeeds in hitting a lot of those notes. Krasinski, after years playing an action hero as Jack Ryan, gets to dust off his lovable scoundrel persona for this film, playing a deeply intelligent, often bumbling thief and archaeologist who gets beat up and somehow comes out the other side. Portman, as she did for Chris Hemsworth in Thor, works well as the straight man to Krasinski’s wise-cracking trickster, and they’re both so naturally charismatic that it’s easy to watch them banter, even if the chemistry they have doesn’t match what Krasinski and Gonzalez manage to conjure in their handful of scenes together. Still, everyone seems to be having fun, and the script lets them have that fun in locations ranging from Vienna to Egypt, London to Bangkok.
And Guy Ritchie, to his credit, knows how to shoot these things in an engaging way. His camera constantly conveys the grandeur and scope of revered academic libraries, pyramids, and the hustle and bustle of Thai streets with the kind of easy cool we’ve come to expect from Ritchie when he’s on his game. There are a few baffling choices, including one fight scene largely shot from above when it would be much more engaging down in the action, but by and large, this is a Guy Ritchie picture in all its big-budget splendor, at least where the pacing and compositions are concerned.
So, what’s the problem here? Why does the movie feel so empty? Well, for all its easy charm and production value, Fountain of Youth never quite pins down what kind of adventure it wants to be, even as characters constantly discuss that very topic. From the moment he reunites with his sister, Luke frequently brings up the lessons of their father, in particular the lesson that the journey matters more than the treasure. He waxes poetic several times about this very idea, as though the movie itself is reaching through the screen to shake its finger at the audience and say “Don’t worry, we’re getting to it!” Yet even as it heads into its climactic moments, Fountain of Youth never picks what exactly it wants to be about, so much so that a voiceover very late in the game explains, while a major moment is unfolding before our eyes, why it’s important and why we’re supposed to care. But the film, and its characters, never seem to really embrace one meaning or another, never commit to an arc that allows them to grow and change. It’s all explained rather than expressed, and it leaves the movie feeling like an exercise in pure, sometimes uneven, style, with no real payoff at the end.
Fountain of Youth has so many great elements working in its favor. Like many successful films before it, it’s a treasure hunt adventure with star power to spare and a director who knows what he’s doing. But for all the time it spends meditating on the nature of “the journey,” it never perfects its own, leaving you with a hollow feeling as the credits roll.
Fountain of Youth premieres May 23 on Apple TV+.
Director: Guy Ritchie
Writer: James Vanderbilt
Stars: John Krasinski, Natalie Portman, Eiza González, Domhnall Gleeson, Arian Moayed, Laz Alonso, Carmen Ejogo, Stanley Tucci
Release date: May 23, 2025
Matthew Jackson is a pop culture writer and nerd-for-hire who’s been writing about entertainment for more than a decade. His writing about movies, TV, comics, and more regularly appears at SYFY WIRE, Looper, Mental Floss, Decider, BookPage, and other outlets. He lives in Austin, Texas, and when he’s not writing he’s usually counting the days until Christmas.
