Review of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) by Ethan C — 22 Oct 2014

You would struggle as a human being to sit through The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and not feel an overwhelming sense of life and beauty. A rare masterpiece that never drags and is so rich in emotion and the wonder of story telling.

David Fincher's The Curious Case may not be his most bleak or as thrilling as the majority of his body of work but it makes up for that by being a power house of emotional and empowering magnitude.

After his wife dies in child birth, Mr button discovers that his new born child is not a child at all but in fact an old man on his death bed, ashamed and afraid, he abandons the child at a home for the elderly and vanishes into the night.

The owner of the house finds the child and decides to raise him as her own. As he grows older/younger, Benjamin ends up going on many an adventure all over the world as a workman on a tug boat, before returning home to fall madly in love with his long lost friend Daisy.

The couple continue to rekindle their friendship as we are forced to watch them age in polar opposite directions. Eric Roth's script is marvelous, full of whit and power, it keeps its tongue in cheek when it needs to, but Benjamin is constantly reminding us, the viewer, what it is to be alive and more importantly what it is to be human.

It's such an enlightening and uplifting film, with plenty of twists and turns and many an emotional roller coaster to play on. This film isnt short either, clocking in just shy of 3 hours, but by now Fincher is so seasoned in the art of film making that the film flies by like a day dream.

Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchette are just both giving the performances of their life times, it's such an interesting and dynamic relationship they share, that by the final sequence its impossible not to feel like you have witness their entire life and their struggles.

Unlike Zodiac, this time the supporting cast play a more unique and memorable role. From Tilda Swinton playing a lover of Benjamin as he stays in russia prior to pearl harbor or an old man who recites the 7 seperate occasions he was struck by lightning.

Daisy's daughter also takes up a large portion of the film as she reads Benjamin's journal to a dying Daisy. It's tear jerking stuff. Raw, powerful and full of innocence. The look and feel of this period piece is astounding, mixing all forms of styles but never feeling out of place.

As the decades change so do the sets and its comes as naturalistic as you would expect. The piece is stunning and with a brilliant script, stunning performances and so good its unnotacable CGI, its hard to fault an achievement like this.

Fincher use's CGI here like a polish, sensibly and sparingly, using lighting, angles and make up to do a good chunk of the work. It pays off as this film is totally reliant on it being beliavable and it works 100% of the time.

A million times more touching than Forrest Gump and an underrated masterpiece. Fincher's outing may not be pitch black but its so thought provoking and compelling its hard not to finish this film and watch to get up and do something with your life, now that ladies and gentlemen is what a film should be.