Review: ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’

Travis:

‘Seven’… ‘The Game’… ‘Fight Club’… and now ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’… director David Fincher is about due for an Oscar and this is my official “endorsement” of David Fincher for Best Director and ‘Benjamin Button’ for Best Picture. As much as I loved ‘The Wrestler’ and ‘Milk’ the truth is that this film is superior.

I’ll begin by filling you in with just the most basic plot synopsis. Benjamin Button is a man who was born old. As a newborn baby, his body was in the condition of a man in his eighties and fixing to die. However, in Benjamin’s case, this was the least healthy his body would ever be. As Benjamin grows older, his body grows younger, which proves to have quite a unique impact on his outlook on life and the relationships he has. The one major advantage to his condition is that he gets to experience things in reverse, meaning the events in our lives that we generally go through while we’re still young and ignorant, Benjamin has the opportunity to experience with a number of decades of wisdom already under his belt even though he appears to be of normal age.

There is so much depth and detail to this story that you simply must treat yourself and escape into this fascinating tale of an unconventional love that endures all obstacles. ‘Benjamin Button’ is a sweeping and often classically epic tale of two people destined to be together, enhanced by a subtle science-fiction flavoring and some wonderful philosophical moments of clarity and realization.

Watching this film is like watching some of the greatest landscape painters works come to life on screen. The visual beauty of ‘Benjamin Button’ is astounding. One of the most powerful scenes in the movie is when the tugboat that Benjamin Button works on is commissioned by the Navy to help during WWII and they meet face-to-face with a German U-Boat. The story has it’s appropriately placed moments of humor as well, including an elderly man who tells stories of how he’s survived seven lightning attacks.

Brad Pitt plays Benjamin Button and does a fantastic job. His performance is low-key, but fittingly so as Button is a somewhat reserved and soft-spoken man, raised to have good manners and a special appreciation for life. I believe Brad Pitt has delivered the performance that should mark him as a serious actor, however fear that he may not get the credit he deserves. I see the possibility that some would claim his performance is made my the wonderful makeup work in the film, but look at any similar situation where a performance is accompanied by distinct makeup and you’ll see that an actor still has to make the makeup work with their performance to succeed. Cate Blanchett… what can I say? I love you! Cate is amazing in everything she does and this film is no exception. The Aussie actress plays Daisy, Button’s life-long love interest. Her range and subtleties as an actress are put to the test and she excels.

Finally, Eric Roth also deserves a strong nomination for Best Screenplay. This is one on the most original and fascinating stories I’ve experienced on screen in some time and, while it’s adapted from a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I feel ‘Benjamin Button’ benefits greatly from Roth and Fincher taking on the project.

[Overall: 5 stars out of 5]

Ram Man:

When was the last time you went to the movies and the story mezmorized you? If it has been awhile, I recommend you check out “the Curious Case of Benjamin Button” this Christmas.   David Fincher brings to the screen and adaptation of on of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short stories about a baby that is born old and gets younger as he grows up. Beyond the brilliant storytelling, the visuals are breathtaking and my choice for Best Cinematography.

Brad Pitt is Benjamin Button. Benjamin is a unique child, because he was born “old”. His mother died in child birth, and one look from his father at the arthridic and wrinkled fetus, had his run from the house to find somewhere to leave this thing. Button leave the baby at the steps of the local nursing home where he is discovered by the caretaker Queenie (Taraji Henson). She takes the baby and raises it as her own. It actually makes for the perfect setting to raise a child born around 90 years old. He fit right in. at the Age of 7, Benjamin was in a wheel chair like the other residents but had a heathy appitie for learning. He took in everything. As he grew he seemed to get younger.

At the age of 7, or 80 with Benjamin, during Thanksgiving the families of some of the old-times came to visit. This is when he first saw Daisy (Elle Fanning-7, Madison Beaty-10, Cate Blanchett-adult). He was taken with her bright blue eyes, as blue as the ocean. He hung out with Daisy everytime she came to visit.   Their two lives would continue to intersect through time as Daisy got older and Benjamin grew yonger. This romance is the backbone or the most unique coming of age (in reverse) stories you will ever see.

Benjamin, when young enough gets a job on a tugboat and begins to travel the world and even ends up in the middle of world war II. The are some awesome scenes with the icy tug boat in the middle of the dark ocean pulling a ship ten times its size. Benjamin meets and befriends numerous people along the way. But the one that still hold his heart is Daisy. Cate Balnchett is a wonderful actress (the Gift, Notes on Scandel, Veronica Guerin) and she shines in the part she plays as the adult version of Daisy.

Personally I like a film with a good story. Like Shawshank Redemption, ‘The Curoious Case of Benjamin Button is told by narration with Daisy in a hospital bed and her daughter reading to her from her diary. This movie will have you mezmorized and you will leave the theater saying “that was 2 1/2 hours long?” It is and it seems to pass in 45 minutes.   I am one of the biggest Dark knight fans there is, but I have to say ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ is by far the best film of 2008. Itake it as David Finchers Christmas present to the World…and I for one say “Thank You!” After all the presents are opened, the egg nog is gone and those annoying relatives finally leave….Go to the movies and see the special perfomance from Brad Pitt, Cate Blnchett and Taraji Henson in the one film that shouldn’t be missed on the big screen.

[Overall:Â  5 stars out of 5]

Melissa:

I thought that this movie would be good with all of the hype around it, but I didn’t think it would be THIS GOOD! Seriously, it surprised the heck out of me!

Daisy (Cate Blanchett) is dying of old age. Her last request is for her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond) to read to her from the diary of a man named Benjamin. Benjamin Button. Benjamin was born in 1918 and suffered from old age. He had arthritis, cataracts, and wrinkles all over his body. Given up by his father, Benjamin was taken in by Queenie, a housekeeper for an elderly home.

Benjamin fit in perfectly there, except for one little thing. While everyone else in the home was getting older, Benjamin was getting younger. He was able to start walking, seeing better, and even was able to run. In his childhood (appearing in his 80’s or 90’s), Benjamin meets Daisy, a pretty little red head who seems to have a liking for him just as much as he does for her. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button tells the story of Benjamin and Daisy, and how their lives intertwine as he gets younger, and she gets older.

Peter Donald Badalamenti II, Robert Towers, Tom Everett, Brad Pitt, Spencer Daniels, Chandler Canterbury, and Charles Henry Wyson all play Benjamin throughout the stages of his life. The one that is most present on screen is Brad Pitt. I believe that Pitt is the voice of Benjamin throughout most of the film as well, but don’t quote me on that one.

Daisy is played by Elle Fanning, Madisen Beaty, and most notably Cate Blanchett. Again, Cate is the most displayed Daisy. This is the first time that I have looked at her and noticed just how beautiful she really is!

This movie takes you on a magical journey throughout Benjamin’s life. His first job on a tugboat, his first drink, his first love, his first kiss etc. He has an effect on everyone that he meets. His warm energy and positive, good natured attitude seems to be respected by everyone around him. Throughout his journeys he meets some wild characters, but it seems that he has more of an affect on them than the reverse. And no matter how many girls he meets, no matter how beautiful, he always goes back to Daisy.

Now don’t get to scared, the love story in this is not too much for men to handle. It doesn’t gross you out by just throwing it in your face like chick flicks do. This is the tale of Benjamin, and the woman he loved, told in a genuine way. Every male that I have talked to that has seen this movie will agree with me on this one.

I could sit here and tell you how many awards that this movie is going to take home, or how hot Brad Pitt is (Duh!), but instead I think you should go see it for yourselves. It is by far (just barely beating ‘Milk’) the best picture of the year! Being over 2 1/2 hours, not once did I check my clock. The story captivates you, invites you in, and doesn’t let go until the end. I do not have a single negative thing to say about this film. it is amazing!

[Overall: 5 stars out of 5]

Jeremy:

Most films where the central theme is mortality are pretty grim. If you look at most of Ingmar Bergman’s films, most of which have death as their chief subject, you’ll find a whole heap of films melancholy and depressing. So, imagine my shock when I saw ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, a film about death yet a film full of vibrancy and life.

Directed by David Fincher, who should own stock in films with depressing subject matter, ‘Benjamin Button’ is the most original and marvelous work he has ever created. Even without the gimmick, for lack of a better word, of a man who ages backwards, the story of Benjamin Button’s life is remarkably moving. Both story and execution serve the character well, and the film feels like a biopic of an actual person rather than a wholly fictitious story.

Screenwriter Eric Roth has a knack for writing overblown screenplays. His exaggerated works include such films as ‘The Postman’, ‘The Horse Whisperer’, and ‘The Good Shepherd’. Like those films, ‘Benjamin Button’ is an extensive film. It’s running time nears three hours, but you never feel it. In fact, when the film is over, and you realize how much time has passed, you wonder where it all went. It’s long, but it never falls into the category of ridiculously extravagant.

Roth also wrote the screenplay for ‘Forrest Gump’, a film that ‘Benjamin Button’ has been compared to a lot. The only comparable aspect between the two films is that they are both fictionalized accounts of a life led by an extraordinary character. The life Benjamin Button lives blows that of Forrest Gump out of the water.

From the post-World War I streets of New Orleans, to a smoky hotel in Murmansk, to the beauty of Paris, Roth and Fincher take Benjamin Button’s life from one incredibly realized location and time to another. Fincher recreates all of these locations with an effortless vision, all the while holding up the power and the beauty of the story his visuals accompany.

The special effects in this film are brilliant, as well. In this day and age where there is very little about filmmaking that we don’t know, it is all that more impressive to see something that we simply don’t know how it is done. When Benjamin Button is seven, he has the face of a 70-year-old Brad Pitt, yet this face is on the body of a small child. If it is CG, it is some of the most remarkable usage of it I’ve ever seen. Fincher is a filmmaker who has always brought back this level of magic to the movies. With ‘Benjamin Button’, he doesn’t hold back one bit.

All of these aspects serve the story of a man’s life well, but, as Benjamin Button says within the film, this character was born under “unusual circumstances.† Much of the film’s power comes from the way it shows Benjamin interacting with others. When he is young, though he looks like a little, old man, he meets a little girl, Daisy. They instantly become soul mates. However, as they age, Benjamin grows younger while Daisy grows older. They meet from time to time over the course of their lives, but it’s when the two meet in the middle that they are able to fully realize the love they have for one another. It is then that they are truly equals, and they each understand the pain and loneliness the other is feeling.

Pitt gives an impeccable performance, and it is in these quiet moments with Daisy, played by the equally flawless Cate Blanchett, where he is really able to shine. He gives Benjamin a playful curiosity in the character’s early life. The makeup effects, though brilliant, never hold the actor back nor does he use them as a crutch. Pitt has this way of creating a maturing about him as Benjamin grows older. When Benjamin is middle-aged and learning how heartbreaking and forlorn his life is without Daisy, Pitt projects these emotions almost effortlessly as well.

The only aspect of the film that I wish would have been different were if Fincher would have utilized those same makeup effects on Benjamin when he is an older man. Looking like a young boy, Fincher opted to cast a young actor to portray Benjamin at this stage in his life. Doing something with Pitt and supplanting his face on a boy’s body would have made for an interesting bookend to when Benjamin was at a young age.

I could go on and on about the greatness that is found in ‘Benjamin Button’. Tilda Swinton gives a magnificent supporting performance. The music by Alexandre Desplat is remarkable. The film’s bookend story of Daisy, old and in a New Orleans hospital while Hurricane Katrina rages on outside was a brilliant component to the film. There is so much effortless beauty to be found in ‘Benjamin Button’.

And, when all is said and done, that is the one word that I keep coming back to when thinking about ‘Benjamin Button’. It is an effortless film. It never tries too hard to be anything that it is not. It is a story of one man’s life, though a very peculiar life. It is the story of this man and the woman he loves and the reasoning that their lives will never be ideal to be together. With Fincher at the helm, ‘Benjamin Button’ is a stunningly crafted film about life and death and what it means to be human. It is one of the absolute best pieces of cinema to come along in a long time, and it will be a film that will surely live on for generations to come.

[Overall: 5 stars out of 5]

Quin:

This is a movie that transcends time. The movie’s tag-line is “Life is not measured in minutes but by moments† and this fits the movie perfectly because it is not a movie just about time. This movie has so many elements that make it more than a movie about age but a story of life, happiness and loving someone regardless of who they are. In my eyes, this movie takes you on a journey with a man who is different and as he progresses through his life the audience grows with him until the movie ends. I give this 10 out of 10 because a 5 scale just doesn’t cut it.