Review of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) by Brian K — 13 Apr 2013

David Fincher's new film is a whole lot of hype, and it is good, albeit a big fat gimmick. As the film started, I was dazzled by the make up and the computer technology, and Brad Pitt's breathless performance. I was bored by a story that flaunts itself as being imaginative, yet is really quite plain and dry. Where was the creativity? How could a movie that is 3 hours long not have anything remotely interesting to say. The film is told 'Titanic'-style as Daisy(Cate Blanchett - God, I love her), an old decaying woman about to die, tells of her old lover, Benjamin, to her daughter. The writing just isn't that good, and the story faulters far too many times.

Okay, take this for example: Benjamin(Brad Pitt) is living his life in reverse. He was born an old man and is now youthing back to childhood. It doesn't really make sense, but whatever. At one point in the film, he is - I'm guessing - in his late 50s. He has been travelling the world and meets a woman: Elizabeth Abbott. She is married, and in Benjamin's own words: "Plain." But, there's something about her. She's got an electrifying sense of discovery and youth(though she's in her late 40s), she's knowledgable, and secretive. Benjamin becomes attracted to this and decides to have an affair with her. She finds herself falling in love with him, but soon leaves him, giving him a note saying, "It was nice to have met you." Then, the film becomes a story about Benjamin and Daisy without making any references(except for a small one) to Elizabeth ever again. The truth is that Ben and Elizabeth's relationship is more honest and interesting than Ben and Daisy's. It would've been more creative and stretching to have Elizabeth bump into him years later to find him a young man. Would she recognize him? What if she didn't, but he reminded her of someone she can't quite put her finger on? That would've been an interesting relationship to play out.

Ben and Daisy's relationship is just creepy. They meet when she's young and he's old. She wants to have sex with him when he is in his late 40s, she in her early 20s. Was she just as attracted to him when he was in his late 50s? How about when he was in his 70s? She also wants to spend her life with him. They have sex a lot when they're both about at their mid-30s. Would she continue to have sex with him when he's a teenager? These questions are never brought up, ever. You'd think that if you were dating someone who youths, instead of ages, that these things would come up. Nobody seems to think that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is curious at all. People ask questions, of course, but when he explains to them that he youths rather than ages, they just brush it off as if there's nothing miraculous about it.

There are some annoying and quite stupid subplots too. A man recalling how he was struck by lightning is funny once or twice, but after the umpteenth time, it starts to get old. Also, there's a lot of talk about storms and the weather. It is so obviously trying to tell me something, but never does. By the end of the film, there's a giant hurricane in the present time at the hospital where Daisy is preparing to leave the earth. The film makes a big deal out of this hurricane and does nothing with it. Do the people all die? Does her daughter die?

Okay, so far, I've just been piling on the bad. I do beleive, however, that pictures must be looked at in the grand scheme and the job of rating a film deals with how much the good outways the bad or vise versa. There are a lot of good things in this film. Tilda Swinton, Brad Pitt, and Cate Blanchett, as well as many others, give brilliant performances. It's not easy to act in a film like this. Really. It's really, very confusing. They're all up for the task, though, and I didn't even realize that Cate Blanchett plays the old, dying Daisy as well. Breathtaking, really. Also, the visual feets accomplished by the film will set a standard. When Benjamin is an 80 year old man and walks for the first time, he is about four feet tall. He is played by Brad Pitt, though. Excellent care was made in the motion capture and incorporation. The make up will probably win an Oscar, as well as the costumes. The lighting is well composed, and the visuals are generally pleasing. The good does outway the bad.

The fact that the Golden Globes even nominated this film as Best Picture is a joke, and if the Academy does the same, it'll reveal their utter cluelessness. There are much better films out this year, but if you do see this film, I implore you to see it on the big screen. There is no way to appreciate this film on DVD, you must see it as a projected image, it's just that kind of movie, there is no other way to see it.