Review of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) by Chris H — 29 Nov 2012

It?s Oscar season and a notoriously slow time for the studios so this week I think it goes without saying that they are not offering up there finest films but rather clearing out the shelves. Think Underworl d and Inkpaint. Rather than putting myself through the pain of either of them I decided to focus on the top two contenders for Best Picture.?The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? as well as ?Slumdog Millionaire? Although both of these films seem far from similar at the core they are both Love Stories.

?The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? is about Benjamin button(Brad Pitt) who is Born old and ages in reverse. It covers the life story of Benjamin and the love of his life Daisy played by Cate Blanchett. This is the 3rd pairing of David Fincher and Brad Pitt previously having collaborated on both Seven and Fight Club. Needless to say my expectations were quite high. Let me start off by saying that this movie is long with a running time just under 3 hours and while this film rewards the patient the majority of the first hour is an extremely slow build up. The movie is beautiful to look at and covers a lot of ground this is by no means a small film. The special effects while numerous are used in such a way to not distract you from story. Fincher doesn?t feel the need to showboat and use CGI just to use it. The aging process is done quite well, not only in the way they make Benjamin look old but in making him look younger as well. Benjamin is vary much in the same vain as Forrest Gump where you follow an individuals extraordinary journey through life, However this is a film that focuses more on the different people in a persons life and the impact they make on that person. It is also a film that will make a person think about morality, how fragile life is and the time we make of it. Pitt is nominated for best actor for his performance and while his acting is fine it is not outstanding nor does it require a lot of range. The hard part was the aging process and the computers handled that.

There a few parts that did not seem realistic at all. These might be considered mild spoilers. Firstly a young person who is in an old persons body would not dress old nor would they style there hair as an older person. He doesn?t leave the old folks home for quite a while so there was no need for him to be dressed like that. He is a kid inside and I would think that he would do what he could on his outward appearance to reflect that. The scene with Daisy where they are caught together in the middle of the night seems a little creepy given Benjamin?s outward appearance. The other issue I have is the size of his head I know the film is set in New Orleans but he looks like he is wearing a Mardi Gras mask, His head appears out of proportion to his body. His head and his body do not appear to be on the same aging pattern. The picture below is an example of the body and head being a little bit off.

The same can be said for When he is young although mentally he is old he has the style of a youngster both in terms of the clothes as well as the hair. Finally instead of being born as an old man he is born an old baby and then grows into his old man body and then shrinks as he gets younger until he is a baby again. So in Addition to aging in reverse he was a baby twice. Did I mention the film is long and the pacing is slow? I could have done without 45 minutes of the first hour. It?s amazing that you can read the short story this film is based on in 10 minutes but it takes 3 hours to watch the film. The film is good but not great and will ultimately fall short on both the Best Picture and Best Actor Nods. It will however clean up in the technical categories.