Review of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) by Irfaan J — 22 Jun 2012

There are many times in our convoluted but ultimately far too short lives that we look back and consider the small and large events that conspired to lead us to where we stand in the present. We think about what went wrong and what went right and if there was anything to be done differently, what the outcome could have been. Ultimately though, no matter how well our powers of forsight may aid us now and again, life will always be a constantly shifting and shuffling mess of things completely out of our control, taking us for a wild ride with an unforseeable destination. This is what lies at the centre of one of 2008's most highly acclaimed features, one that holds one of the most fascinating and original premises I've ever witnessed in a movie.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" has been compared to the 1994 classic "Forrest Gump" and rightfully so. Anyone who's seen that slice of popular culture will instantly recognise similar themes and plot elements here. Both films deal with viewing the changing course of life through the eyes of someone held at a distance from the majority of society due to their unique differences, providing us with a fresh perspective on familiar events in times gone past, as well as the ultimate discovery as to what our purpose in life is. In the older film, it was a man child with a far below average IQ. In the newer, its a man child in the most literal sense and this is the hook that draws our full attention from the start.

The title character lives a life starting from the end and ending at the beginning essentially, born a decrepid old man who as the years go by grows increasingly younger physically, while mentally still retaining the years of experience lived through (giving us quite an inquisitive, naiive old man and a fairly reserved, contemplative twenty something). Throughout his existence through a major portion of the 20th Century, he meets various types of people, falls in love with the girl of his dreams and through all of it is faced with the same good and bad times and the same difficult decisions to be made by everyone else, only with the added novelty of gaining youth with every day, rather than losing it like those around him.

The film's strength is its novel premise, which while never explained is wonderfully ironic; many people wish they could turn back time and do things differently, or simply relive those times of youth all over again with the added knowledge gained with the years of experience, whereas here is a person who can actually move backwards in his physical and in some regards mental age. What's surprising and fascinating to find out through the course of the film is whether or not this reversed scenario really changes anything when it comes to dealing with the passage of one's life. Does is have a harsher effect on the people close to you that have to deal with it directly and are probably more concious of what such a condition means?

The story can feel a bit episodic due to the passage of a person's life presented to us as a sequence of chapters, each taking place within a different time period, almost seeming disconnected from one another. However it's the way we are treated to this character's unique condition and how it effects others as it progresses over the generations that really shines, tying these segments together into a massive tapestry. The way he drifts through his existence almost without detection (barely even by the people closest to him) also allows him to appreciate life's smaller details and how these things often add up to influence far greater events (one sequence in particular involving the small events that lead up to a car accident is particularly striking).

Performances are all very solid. Kate Blanchett is vibrant as the love interest to the title character, bringing both a lot of energy and moments of quiet contemplation. Brad Pitt is uncharacteristically understated as Benjamin Button himself, often having to work under heavy prosthetics or in the guise of a mostly digital double. He manages to convey the sense of a man physically changing one way while mentally developing the other way. All the supporting characters are wonderful to watch and provide the majority of the flm's rare moments of humour.

Visually the film is almost without flaw. Having to represent various different time periods, all the details from the sets to the costumes are done right and it's all bathed in wonderfully evocative lighting that gives the film a very rich, sepia toned look. The real point of conversation though would be the aging process of Brad Pitt and Kate Blanchett. While using digital technology to make actors look younger has been done before (see X-Men Last Stand) it's done to near perfection here. But its the aging child that is Pitt for the first act of the movie that is a true marvel of smoke and mirrors. We see the middle aged actor as a shrivelled up, hunch backed, under 4 foot geriatric in a wheel chair or on crotches for a significant period of screen time, a bizarre sight that for the most part is completely convincing. There are moments when some of the digital effects show their rough edges, but most of the time the results boggle the mind more than anything as to how it was all done. The visuals succeed in completely selling the situation.

However the film does feel quite long, particularly around the midsection, with most of the best material in the first and final acts. Plus despite the heavy and rich subject matter, things never get too emotional (the exception been the mesmerising conclusion). The main character always appears to be a little distant from us (despite him narrating most of the film through a diary read by an individual in the present), probably due to his unique condition or because of Pitt's subdued performance. He exists as an eyepiece for the film's events. Nothing really happens to him as such, rather things happen around him and he's caught in the middle. For this reason, it's difficult to be truely involved with his story, rather the other characters are the ones who earn most of our sympathy, particularly Blanchett's character who has to go through quite a lot. This is in contrast to "Forrest Gump", where while the main character had a similarly peripheral role to play there, he nevertheless both heavily influenced and was deeply effected by what happened around him (at least the things he could comprehend). That quality is not absent in "Benjamin Button", but is definately on the slight side, leaving a fairly indifferent aftertaste.

Overall though, this is an easy film to admire, mainly for its bewildering, fariytale premise and gorgeous production values. The characters are certainly well defined and the performances are fine. There's also a lot of content here, spanning an entire lifetime in fact and so matching life's unpredictability, the film stays watchable and engrossing due to its meandering structure that twists and turns to a conclusion that, while not completely out of the blue, is reached in an entirely unconventional way. Add the contemplative, sweeping and complex subject matter of finding one's purpose in life by simply living it (albeit in this case backwards) and you have a wonderfully rich motion picture. Cut the length down a bit and make the main character a little more engaging and this could have been a masterpiece like the aforementioned past film of life's ups and downs.