Thanks for checking out our “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” review.
It was early in the year when I first heard about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. There was some discussion about very early predictions for the Oscars and what upcoming films were getting the advanced buzz for possible awards. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was always mentioned by everyone in those discussions, and why not? It had a terrific premise and a cast to kill for. Brad Pitt in his latest stab at an Oscar for himself, and Kate Blanchett, who I contend is the best pure actress in the business today. But as we’ve drawn closer to Oscar season, many of those early favorites have been somewhat disappointing… did The Curious Case of Benjamin Button disappoint? No, it didn’t… but at the same time, it also didn’t quite live up to the hopes I had for it either.
THE GENERAL IDEA
The synopsis for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button reads something like this: “I was born under unusual circumstances. And so begins The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 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. We follow his story, set in New Orleans from the end of World War I in 1918, into the 21st century, following his journey that is as unusual as any mans life can be. Directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett with Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas and Julia Ormond, Benjamin Button, is a grand tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time.”
THE GOOD
The perspective that the film takes hooked me in almost right from the opening credits. Yes we all know that the movie is about “a guy who is born old and ages backwards”, but trust me, the novelty of that idea ends there, and the truly fascinating stuff picks up. Through the film we see not just events, but life itself, the common questions and issues we all face in one form or another… but from a truly unique perspective and point of view. Benjamin encounters and has to deal with the issues of death and old age and the loss of friends at a VERY early age, and director David Fincher does a brilliant job at forcing us as an audience to engage these issues from the perspective of a 6 year old boy. Love, loss, passion, destiny, purpose, aging… all these things, looked at in reverse order… and the movie made me feel the relevance all the way through. It was wonderful.
One of the things that I really treasured about this film is that it kept the focus of the experience on the issue of “a different perspective” throughout. There is no “story” to this movie. The movie is about the life of Benjamin Button and how his experience of it differs from our own. I loved that the film just let us go through his life with him. Yes there is a love interest in the movie… but even that is only there to serve as a part of his remarkable life… another issue that we all share and can relate to, but from a different point of view. The movie is about his life… and nothing else. BEAUTIFULLY DONE.
Brad Pitt will indeed get his Oscar nomination this year… and may have a chance at winning (Personally I’d still give the award to Sean Penn for his work in Milk). Playing a character like Benjamin Button presents a lot of challenges… being a fragile old man while being 6 years old at the same time would be enough of a challenge to give the best of actors a migraine, but Pitt pulled it off flawlessly. He made me believe in this fictional character, empathize with him, relate with him and stand in awe of him all at the same time.
The visual effects were absolutely mind blowing! You’ll have to shake your head a few times, and on several occasions you’ll find yourself staring at the screen and asking yourself “is that real”?!?!?! I was completely floored. They all looked so real I was never once pulled out of the film (which many well meaning effects in films often do).
Kate Blanchett is the best actress working in films today (well… when she’s not playing a Russian spy trying to find some lost Alien crystal skull that is). In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button she shows it again. The job wasn’t quite as complex as the one Pitt had handed to him, but nonetheless she had to play a women going through all stated of life facing a unique set of circumstances. She was flat out amazing.
THE BAD
This is going to sound like a complete contradiction, and I’m still not completely sure how to explain it… but while I loved this movie… I was also bored a few times. The beauty of the film just being about Button’s life is also a weakness in the sense that it needs to just loiter around for several stretches of the film. They were important parts… but being important doesn’t mean engaging all the time. So I know this will sound completely odd to say… but I loved this movie… and will never watch it again.
OVERALL
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a beautifully told story, looking at life from a remarkable perspective that made the think, appreciate and even lament life and all its complexities (and simplicities). The film is propelled but truly Oscar calibre performances from both Pitt and Blanchett… and oddly enough… quite boring at times. I still don’t quite understand how I can love, and yet be bored by this film at the same time. I’ll recommend that everyone should see it… but I won’t watch it twice. Weird. Overall I give The Curious Case of Benjamin Button an 8 out of 10.
