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Directed By
David Fincher
Written By:
Eric Roth, Robin Swicord
Cast:
Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Elle Fanning, Elias Koteas, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng, Taraji P. Henson, Faune A. Chambers, Josh Stewart, Jacob Tolano, Ted Manson, David Jensen, Eve Brent, Patrick Holland, Bianca Chiminello, Louis Herthum, Megan Brown, Wilbur Fitzgerald, Joel Bissonnette, Devyn A. Tyler, Henry Robin, Brianna Womick, Deneen Tyler, Donna DuPlantier, Geraldine Glenn, Ed Metzger, Robert Towers, Henry Pelitire, Rus Blackwell, Aliane Baquerot, Walter Delmar, Jody Thompson, Craig Sawyer, Allison Robin, Joe Fontana, Louis Dupuy, Victoria Goulet, Jason McLaughlin, Carol Dupuy, Tom Everett, Duncan Key, Raymond Lapino, Cynthia LeBlanc, Jay Oliver, Chaz Smith, David Ross Paterson, John David Smith, Michael Wozniak, Brett Beoubay, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Chandler Canterbury, Jeanne Bourgeois, Lance E. Nichols, Spencer Daniels, Dewayne Bateman, Deejay Buras, Malerie Grady, Peter Donald Badalamenti II, Joshua DesRoches, Emma Degerstedt, Eric West, Charles Henry Wyson, Naima Imani Lett, Katta Hules, Myrton Running Wolf, Libby Foster, Angelina McCoy, Lauri Christi, Emily Howe, Christopher Maxwell, Cameron Cash, Taren Cunningham, Zuri Goldman, Garrett Forbes, Aaron Jennings Hartnell, Kate Donadio, Paula Gray, Mitchell Falk, Nadyia Jones, Madisen Beaty, Joeanna Sayler
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
December 28th, 2008
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Benjamin Button is born with a curious abnormality; he ages backwards, so, at birth, he has the appearance of an elderly man, but retains the physical stature of a child, plagued with infirmities, severe arthritis that keeps him confined to a wheelchair and prevents him from walking, and cataracts that impair his vision. He is abandoned by his father, Thomas (Jason Flemyng), and his mother has died in labor, and so he is left on the door of an old age home, run by Queenie (Taraji P Henson), who raises Benjamin as her own son. Imagine how baffled doctors must be when they look at Benjamin; as he enters adolescence and adulthood, he gets younger, and healthier, all of his previous maladies disappear, and these are maladies that are not easily curable.
Benjamin, of course, could only exist in fiction; his condition is scientifically impossible. The movie is a majestic fantasy, a marvel of technical craftsmanship, and David Fincher has emerged, in my view, as a frontrunner for the Best Director Oscar. Fincher has made several terrific films, most of them horror and suspense tales, like The Game, Seven, Panic Room, and Zodiac, but 'Benjamin Button' is his most ambitious project to date. There is not the slightest misstep on his part that I could detect; this is a near-perfect depiction of the human life cycle, and one man's unique journey through its various stages.
The story spans roughly eight decades, beginning in 2005, with Caroline (Julia Ormond) watching over her gravely ill mother, Daisy (Cate Blanchett) at a New Orleans hospital. Among Daisy's possessions, she finds Benjamin's diary, which she proceeds to read aloud. We learn that Benjamin met Daisy for the first time when they were both about seven years old; he was instantly smitten with her, and she believes him when he says that he is not as old as he appears to be. She can sense the youthfulness within him.
Their paths will cross again and again, eventually developing into a kind of Romeo and Juliet romance, wrought with difficulty and hampered by fateful situations beyond their control. When Benjamin sets out on his own, bidding goodbye to Queenie, and promising to correspond frequently with Daisy via postcard, we follow him as he experiences life in the outside world. He serves on a tugboat crew during WWII, and while spending the winter in Russia, he has an affair with Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton), wife of an English trade official.
Benjamin falls for Elizabeth, and they share a relationship that is deeply intimate yet also charmingly simple. Swinton is mesmerizing, in a warmer role than she usually plays; Elizabeth lingers in our minds as much as she does in Benjamin's, and we can understand why he never forgets her. Daisy is training to be a dancer, but that dream is dashed when she is struck by a car; Fincher uses a virtuoso montage sequence to show us the series of seemingly trivial, disconnected events that lead up to this tragic accident. Daisy and Benjamin do get a chance to make love, and at this moment, they appear to be the same age externally, and this alleviates any inherent awkwardness felt either by them or the audience.
I struggled with the profound wrongness of the potential scenarios; a sexual encounter, for instance, when they are both in their 70s or 80s, when Benjamin looks like a nubile prepubescent, or when they are both teenagers, and Benjamin looks like an elderly midget. Thankfully, we reach a happy medium, somewhere in the 40s I suspect. Benjamin will continue to revert to a younger state, until he reaches infancy and dies; what an interesting juxtaposition of contrasting images and ideas. Eric Roth wrote the script for Forrest Gump back in 1994, and I think he tries to draw some parallels between Forrest and Benjamin; Forrest is an ordinary man caught up in extraordinary circumstances, witnessing extraordinary things, almost by accident, unaware of what they signify.
Benjamin, on the other hand, is an extraordinary man who experiences ordinary events that most could relate to; when Daisy asks him what it is like to age in reverse, he cannot provide much of an answer, because he has never known anything else. To him, the alternative is harder to comprehend. Blanchett, as always, is fantastic. Pitt, however, is the main draw here, and he has to keep up with the special effects that make his stunning transformation into Benjamin Button possible. It is not merely the superb make-up that gives him wrinkled skin and diminishing amounts of gray hair; but the digital wizardry that allows for the seamless illusion that Pitt, in those early scenes, actually does have the height of a young boy, somewhere between four and five feet tall, surrounded by adults of normal size.
The awe in this particular case wears off once we see Benjamin start to look more and more like the Brad Pitt we are familiar with; the one whose picture has adorned tabloids and magazines, the Pitt we saw in Troy, Legends of the Fall, Meet Joe Black, or Thelma & Louise. Pitt's performance is tricky, because it requires a deft and convincing transition from a young man trapped in an old body, to the exact opposite, an old man trapped in a young body; Benjamin's mind and soul age naturally, while his body ages abnormally. Roth, in adapting a relatively obscure short story by F Scott Fitzgerald, has done so quite loosely, ignoring the humor of the source material, and instead focusing on more serious themes, infusing the picture with sorrowful mortality.
It is an absorbing drama, and a wonderful romance, and Pitt displays splendid chemistry with both Swinton and Blanchett. I have not mentioned the length; it clocks in at 167 minutes, the longest major theatrical release of the year, edging out Australia by two minutes, and The Dark Knight by 14. Nothing is wasted here, though, and it moves along at a surprisingly brisk pace. The cinematography captures the picturesque beauty of the diverse landscapes, notably the palpable, piercing coldness and snow-covered streets of Russia, a setting reminiscent of Doctor Zhivago. A remarkable achievement.
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 | Zara
Dec 29, 2008 10:14 AM
also wrote a review of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 
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| I keep hearing good stuff about this flick, even from my most cynical of friends. But I must say, there's something in my gut which just isn't interested in it. I guess I'm sick of the Brad & Angie hype and am letting that carry over. It doesn't mean I won't watch it eventually, as I tend to watch everything at some point, I just don't have the drive to go out and see it. (And yet I suffered through THE SPIRIT. Go figure.) |
 | Rodney
Dec 29, 2008 2:36 AM
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| Forrest Gump meets the Notebook. The only original thing about this 3 hour epic, is the character flaw. |
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