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.
I really liked the article, and the very cool blog
movie is similar to art – its existence is not to tell people but up for people’s interpretation. it is not about what it shows but what people can see from it.
there are a few interesting points worth thinking in the movie:
– time plays a key role in love. the flower of love can only blossom at the right timing.
– we love our kids partly because of our foresight and imagination of the future when they have grown up.
– does ‘love’ exist in reality? will we still love a person who is not able to have sex with and communicate with?
I think it had nothing to say and it was boring! Benjamin was only different from others and nothing else.he was different because he was born old and died young.. and his life was the reverse.
i thought the film had a very strong story line athought the length of the film and also the heartache shown in the film was too much!
hello there
great review John!
just one thing cd anyone help me figure out the mise-en-scene of this movie?
im just not gettin it…
thanks in advance
I think it is the most boring movie ever. Benjamin had no emotion depth, and was just going about life. Someone please tell me the ending, I walked out of the theatre 1 hour in the movie.
It is truly a ‘Story’ unlike most of the films that are made today; like Forrest Gump and Big Fish. Beautiful.
True, its a great movie, its just that an hour or so of it could have been saved for extras on the DVD.
Yo John, I agree. I have only good things to say about this film but I walked out of there so tired and bored. I enjoyed the story but I felt like it never really stirred my emotions. I also have to say that my favorite stage of B.Button was played by, Peter Donald Badalamenti II, he played Button during the miracle in the church scene. I think his character was the most sincere and genuine. I liked him at that age. Also, I made the mistake of thinking it would be a good date film. But nooooo, it’s sucked all of our energy. But I still think people should see it. It’s like the Forest Gump of this decade but just falls short on entertainment value.
Thanks for allowing our comments.
Yo John, I agree. I have only good things to say about this film but I walked out of there so tired and bored. I enjoyed the story but I felt like it never really stirred my emotions. I also have to say that my favorite stage of B.Button was played by, Peter Donald Badalamenti II, he played Button during the miracle in the church scene. I think his character was the most sincere and genuine. I liked him at that age. Also, I made the mistake of thinking it would be a good date film. But nooooo, it’s sucked all of our energy. But I still think people should see it. It’s like the Forest Gump of this decade but just falls short on entertainment value.
Thanks for allowing our comments.
I went in thinking I was going to see a movie about Love and life but the characters were drab and so was the script. Benjamin was not involving at all.
Just watched it myself last night and I feel the same way as John. I liked it but it was definitely way too long. And its not that I can’t handle long movies because I love Finchers’ Zodiac (2007) and that was a few minutes longer than Benjamin Button. Pitt was great as Button and Blanchett like always was superb as Daisy.
i think the movie was wonderful it was like no other it brought out so
many emotions happiness when he learned to walk sadness whenever
some died or when daisy broke his heart. pity when he never really had a
childhood. the movie was a real journey in someone’s life with a the up’s
and down’s.The movie has a very good but interesting ending.
The movie did remind me so much of Gump and I’m glad a lot of people here see this. Still, it’s a good movie.
This film you refer to..I just saw it this evening. I knew what it was supposed to be about, but I found it quite “Curious” the way Benjamin just lets life happen to him and that’s it! He has no soul, no emotions to speak of that are profoundly displayed. And the various wigs that Pitt wore..well, they seemed second-hand store quality. I’m sorry, but I don’t know what visual effects your talking about. The “baby” looked to me right out of bad sci-fi. I guess I was expecting a little more depth in this movie. I did like the character of BB’s father. I wish he could have had a bigger part.. as well as the mother’s and their death scenes. Cate’s death scene was just, as one blogger stated, an interruption.
polarizing indeed, which is more times than not a quality of anything worth half a damn. half way through i was like, “this is not at all as good as i thought it would be,” now, bear in mind i just got out of the film an hour ago, so it hasn’t seasoned long enough to really gather my thoughts, but this is the first movie i didn’t leave for a cigarette prolly since i started smoking. {put cynical joke here}. i don’t know what it is about ole benjamin buttons, but this movie is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, and to me, that’s good cinema.
An awful RIPOFF, all involved better let go of their egos. Combine Forrest Gump, with Simon Birch then mix in the Titanic but make it boring like a dream sequence with weird happenings that go nowhere, and mean nothing. It stupidly stinks and sinks.
I saw people walk out of the theatre about 2/3 of the way into the movie– one replied, “This is ridiculous! My sentiments exactly. I even like Brad and Cate but their talents were barely used and they weren’t even that memorable or that likeable in character. The most memorable, best acting was done by the secondary characters–the mom, boat captain, the socialite, etc.
Special effects? If you get a bad feeling when in the first few scenes you notice dying, elderly Cate is wearing EYELINER?! Come on, leave the theatre!
@Austin
It is an adapted screenplay, but it’s been stated that Eric Roth simply took the title and main overall plot from the short. Probably 75% of the film was original, at least that’s what Fincher said in a recent Charlie Rose interview.
It’s unfortunate that people thought this movie was boring…
Stop expecting to be entertained all the time!
Sheesh.
@ MC
its not an original screenplay. its based on F Scott FItzgerald’s short story. so blame him.
it drags on a lot, but come on, i think some people here failed to see the beauty of it. i LOVED it, it’s one of the best if not the best of the year alongside the dark knight
it’s Cate Blanchett, not Kate Blanchett
While I see where you are coming from, I must disagree. I do think that the film does drag on just a little bit, at least near the end, but this film is one that I think will and should be seen by people multiple times. It’s about a person going through a very singular life, but it’s about universal themes. Love, life, and loss are all things that everyone can relate to, and it just really emotionally effected me. The tag line really sums this film up well, “life isn’t measured in minutes, but in moments”, and this film is chock full of hilarious, sweet, sad, and touching moments. It’s a film that I really think is one of the year’s best, and one that everyone should see. But you do have a point, it does lag, I just disagree with you on the degree to which it does…I personally gave it an 8.5, so we don’t really have much disagreement…Great review!
i agree with elisabeth. i also thought this was the most boring movie ever. i actually was wishing that benjamin would hurry up and die. not a nice thought but i wanted out of my misery.
This movie was a shameless knockoff of Forrest Gump.
At the very least, the two films share significant similarities. How you can acknowledge that and not be disappointed in Benjamin Button is beyond me.
Most blog reviewers seem to be Brad Pitt fanboys who either buy into the hype or (I presume) haven’t seen Gump. For a movie to be the masterpiece you claim this is, shouldn’t it have an original screenplay?
Gump Button formula: overcomes childhood infirmity and miraculously learns to walk; learns homey catchphrases about life’s unpredictability from strong, sensible mother; pursues intermittent lifelong romance with fresh-faced beauty; has vacant, dim demeanor as an adult; lands job on a boat with lovable drunk (Cap’n Mike, meet Lieutenant Dan); returns home from war and easily comes into great wealth. All told in flashback with the sweeping arc of history in the background.
Coltrane
Scarface has got to be one of the most boring movies of all time. In my opinion of course. The Departed is one of my all time favorite movies ever, but I know those boring parts, especially when Dicaprio is fresh on Damon’s tail. But Scarface, with Pacino, seemed to take every boring moment of every gangster movie and well… turned into it’s own movie.
(i’m saying bad things about De Palma’s side of the story here.
If anyone wants to see a true epic in crime, check out Mean Streets.
OMG this movie was the worst. I was so bored I wanted to set my
hair on fire. It was sooooooooooo corny too. We laughed through
most of it.
I think what you take from this movie reflects who you are as a person. There are so many themes, stories, and so much style packed into this film that I find it impossible for a person to watch it and take absolute nothing from their viewing. I just can’t imagine a person being that incapable of relating to anything in this film. I think the few people that couldn’t enjoy it need to get over themselves – bottom line.
I agree with most of your review except for a few points. There IS a story. There are many stories in this film. You may have felt like there is no “story” to this movie because it wasn’t a simple one. It was a portrait of a man’s life, which anyone knows is a collection of stories and events. However, at the end of the day the focus remained on one story that brings them all together. Rethink your statement.
I will also watch it again. It’s not one of those movies you watch over and over because to truly watch it requires so much thinking and reflection, but I have a feeling I’ll see it again one day and enjoy it just as much as I did today.
I too understand seeing a film, thinking its great and never wanting to see it again, thats the way I felt after seeing “Sid & Nancy” Great movie but I
never want to sit through that again.
Great review! I understand exactly what you mean. Most recently I felt the same excact way about another Oscar ‘darling’ and that was the ‘Departed’. Don’t get me wrong I thought the ‘Departed’ was a good movie that was very entertaining. However it lacked the depth of a Casino,Goodfellas,Scarface or a Godfather. I only watched ‘Departed’ once, so I understand your stance completely!
Thanks for your view of this film. Am still buzzed up to see it, in fact it’s still @ the TOP of my must see this holiday’s list.
It is strange that some have said the film was long at 3 hours but now that ‘time’ has been shaved off, you think it’s missing some sections important to the story.
What gives? Was the editor over zealous?? Hope not…
Hey Debo,
Maybe you need to realize that this is a BLOG. I give OPINIONS… MY OPINIONS. I don’t write useless “critical objective reviews” because I don’t believe they exist.
I say there was no “story” to Benjamin Button. Period. That’s my opinion.
Obviously there are a few things that need to be realized here to make this an objective critical review and not a matter of opinion.
“There is no “story” to this movie.”
One who spends so much time reviewing films needs to understand what the “story” element to a film is. It is not the plot. The “story” of a film is what gives the backdrop of everything occurring on screen. It happens mostly before and after the film. So to say that a film revolving around the life experiences of a certain character would not be a story is baseless and misleading. The “plot” is the chain of events that drives the film. “A” leads to “B”, leads to “C”, leads to “D”, so on and so forth. We are given the plot before we even see the film. ‘Benjamin Button’s’ plot is about a man who ages backwards. Essentially this plot device is what causes the chain of events to unfold. The “story” on the other hand, which this “critic” says there is none of, is the journey on which the protagonist takes the audience on. In the case of ‘Benjamin Button’, it is primarily the love story between he and Daisy. It is about their journey to how they started at opposite ends of the age spectrum and wound up on the exact opposite, greatly effecting their capability to love one another. If you didn’t have this story between the two dynamic characters, then YES, you would have a film with no story and only plot points that showed us what happened in his life. Benjamin Button already leads a life of solitude. The love story is what gives reason to the film and justifies what we’re seeing on screen. Perhaps a second analysis is needed before posting an objective critique on subject matter that people rely on to inform them on what films to see.
Yeah, there is no question that this will probably not get richer and fuller from repeat viewings. However, I have to differ with John in the sense that during my review at thefilmnest.com, I felt that this is the best film I have seen to date this year. I was shocked that Fincher could pull off such a story. I think the most apropos comparison is to Forrest Gump. Very similar in SOOO MANY ways, but admittedly Gump is funnier and more re-watchable so to speak.
thats the wrong name there fella, meaning Cate Blanchett, not Kate.
Everytime the film shifted from the Benjamin story to the dying “Kate” story it interrupted the drama, for me, and dragged. I rolled my eyes more than a few times during this film, but then I didn’t like Forrest Gump either. benjamin Button never made me believe.
I SO CAN’T WAIT TO SEE IT!
Thanks for the review John.
I watched the trailer and I never want to see it again…
^
Whatta ya mean when she not playing a Russian spy? She was ultra hot in that role who cares about the script… :-)
And I never found out what you thought of Quantum Of Solace John.
Makes sense to me Michael Clayton grate film enjoyed but never going to watch it again saw it twice and thats enough for me.
Is this a sequel to The Assasination of Jesse James?
I think that this film will be brilliant!! Well I hope!!!
Great review, John. I miss your reviews.
This has long been my ‘most anticipated film of the year’. I read the short story…meh…but before this, I’d read ‘The Confessions of Max Tivoli’, and was fascinated by the notion of a similar project being brought to the screen.
I’ll be seeing this at the Commodore Theatre in Portsmouth, VA. Take a look: http://www.commodoretheatre.com
that’s kind of how I feel about The Great Ziegfeld. Beautiful and boring.
I understand what you mean by it was amazing but once is enough. Not much rewatchability, but amazing the first time(a little like borat but in a different way).