Since catching the trailer during mid 2008, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button became one of my personal must see movies. Initially expected to arrive on UK shores at Christmas the movie was delayed slightly for a February 2009 launch, this struck me as being quite odd because it certainly is one of those movies that on initial glimpses oozes Christmas cheer, under the direction of David Fincher (Alien 3, Zodiac, Se7en) this was bound to be a movie for the family to see.
The big family hook of the movie is that for its lead character Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) he begins life at its end and moves backwards (or forwards if you wish) through to the state a normal person would be at birth. The product born of tragedy, Benjamin arrives in the world with elastic skin, severe arthritis, failure of several organs, and blindness. Unwanted by his father Thomas (Jason Flemyng) he dumps Benjamin on the doorstep of an old people home, a home run by the kind hearted Queenie. Queenie takes in Benjamin fearing that the next days will be his final ones, however as time goes past he just gets better. By the time Benjamin is seven years old he looks like an eighty year old man, too
ill to walk he moves round in his wheelchair. As time moves on Benjamin must live his life in reverse as he gets younger those around him age and die, how will true love hold out with such a curse.
If ever a movie deserved the title "No-brainer" then this is the movie; while it seems like a fantastic idea on paper or even in your head the reality you need to ask yourself is where exactly can the story go? The movie starts with birth and undoubtedly must end with death; the big question however is why on earth it would take the best part of three hours to tell such a tale.
There are a great deal of problems with this movie, first of all the movie is very much like a normal life but told in reverse. The momentous issue of the movie is that Benjamin is a very unusual man, but short of his curse his adventures (albeit a curious incident during the second world war) are pretty bland; meet a girl, fall in love, fall out of love, fall back in, sleep around, you have the idea. The revelation of this dullness does not really hit you until the first hour of the movie has passed, during that time you get to understand the illness and see Pitt evolve. But once you have understood the curse that Benjamin lives by, what you are left with is a hollow gift, a movie with no clear direction, predictable plot, and characters you have no real love for.
Not everything about the movie is dull, there is this amazing beauty in its filmmaking, take Brad Pitt for example even though he is played by another actor during his earliest (oldest) years you can always see Pitts face in the character. It's a marvel of cinema that will be the only reason the movie acquires any long term recognition. Pitt himself looks both older and younger than we have ever seen him before, its particularly interesting seeing him age from a forty year old man down to a teenager, with all the lines gone.
Another masterstroke of the movie is the detail with which the story is told, you see the difficulties that occur as your life is told backwards, as the character essentially goes through puberty twice. Watching all the characters get older while Benjamin gets younger also causes a number of issues.
Sadly there is no magic to the movie, there is no real joy, nothing to give you those warm feelings that all those classic out of the ordinary love stories offer the viewer, it's a grim dark movie that will lose all impact with the youthful audiences. Something more curious than the title is how for 140 minutes the movie you are lead to believe this is a family movie, then in the last twenty minutes that wonderful F word pops up to ruin any possibilities of it being for the family.
There is a great cast bought together for the movie, relative newcomer Taraji P. Henson is joined by some solid heavyweight performers; Cate Blanchette, Tilda Swinton, Julia Ormand, Jared Harris, and Elias Koteas. But despite its high calibre the only people you care about are Henson as Queenie and Pitt as Benjamin, the two love interests are lacking substance and any real likeability.
The movie does offer some light humour, but on the whole is something far duller than you could ever believe it to be, and sadly far longer than you would like. The last ninety minutes of the movie are so painfully slow, that you will feel like any joy garnered in the first sixty minutes just disappears into the ether.
There is nothing extraordinary about Benjamin Button, and to some level you may well come away finding your life far more interesting.
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is in UK cinemas from February 6th.
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Very well-written and informative movie review. Thanks.
Pomcamgirl 04.03.2009 02:14
This is funny as I preferred the last 60 minutes of the film, even though I agree with you on nearly everything. It's a film I enjoyed watching but far too long. And I still can't see what Katrina had to do with the rest...
tallulahbang 21.02.2009 19:12
Brad Pitt's face is that of a retard who's done alright for himself. xx
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I was born under unusual circumstances. And so begins The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, ... more
adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time...
I was born under unusual circumstances. And so begins The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, ... more
adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time...
Advantages: Everything. It's got depth, good characters, good plot, its well thought out, thought provoking... Disadvantages: You have to pay attention... That's it. No half watching this film.
surveysista1988 10.06.2009 (10.06.2009)
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