The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Review

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is probably the saddest movie I’ve seen all year.

By the way, I really liked it.

I’ve seen and heard a lot of the criticisms of the movie — it’s a “Forrest Gump” knockoff, it’s “emotionally cold/distant,” Brad Pitt stinks. I can certainly understand all of them, but I just don’t agree with them.

In case you don’t know, the film chronicles the life of Benjamin Button (Pitt) who was born in New Orleans as an old-looking infant in 1919 and proceeds to age backwards, even as the people in his life — including his adoptive mother Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) and the love of his life Daisy (Cate Blanchett) — get older and die.

Through its curious (sorry!) premise, the movie (based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story) explores issues of life and death, joy and sadness, and what a crucial role timing plays in life. (Though the “Magnolia”-esque chaos theory sequence with the taxi was a bit much and, though beautiful, felt out of place.)

Then again, a LOT of this movie is absolutely beautiful. David Fincher (one of the best directors working today) turns his usually-grim eye to ..New Orleans.. in the 1920’s, Russia in the 1940’s and a good part of the southeastern United States in the subsequent decades. However, Fincher doesn’t allow his visuals or his actors to go COMPLETELY soft and sentimental (there are no obvious big applause/tear duct moments), which sometimes gives the movie an unnatural-looking sheen.

It’s also the reason why I can totally understand the “emotionally cold” criticism. Personally, I think the style (that things look beautiful, but always slightly off or fake) works for this particular story (which is after all about a man who ages backwards).

The movie was written by Eric Roth, who won an Oscar for his “Forrest Gump” screenplay and I can certainly see the comparisons. Both movies follow a protagonist with some sort of impediment and who has a lifelong on-again/off-again love affair with his dream girl. However, “Forrest Gump” was definitely more of a crowd-pleaser that reached for (and hit) more unabashedly emotional moments. “Benjamin Button” reflects its director meaning it’s just darker and sadder. And I’m fine with that. Also, despite the extraordinary circumstances, Benjamin’s life is not nearly as spectacular (or at least not as life-altering) as Forrest Gump’s, which makes his story a little more relatable (well as relatable as you can make a guy with his condition).

The movie takes its time in establishing Benjamin at each stage of his life, starting with his early years living in the nursing home under Quennie’s care (Henson earns her Oscar nomination and carries this part of the movie with strength and heart) and followed by his tour of duty on a tugboat (the U-Boat sequence was kinda awesome). It was around that time that Benjamin really learns about adult love (and sorrow) from lonely Elizabeth Abbot (Tilda Swinton). I have a feeling this is where a lot of people think the movie drags, but I thought the scenes with Benjamin and Elizabeth connecting in the early morning hours in an empty hotel were some of the movie’s best.

Of course, Benjamin eventually reaches his prime (and we see the big reason Brad Pitt was cast in this role) and the time where everything in his life is just perfect. (I think we all know that time in our life when we see it, and if it hasn’t come yet for some of us, it’s something to look forward to.) I felt the movie kind of rushes Benjamin’s time as a child, but then again, the movie was already creeping toward the three-hour mark and people are already complaining that it’s too long.

Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible for me to judge Pitt’s performance, since most of his work early in the film involves a mixture of heavy makeup and pasting his face in smaller actor’s bodies. The fact that it all looks seamless and believable seems to be more a triumph of the movie’s great visual effects than Pitt’s work. When Pitt plays Benjamin in his prime, he doesn’t appear to be doing anything extraordinary, but I found his sadness and weariness a nice contrast to his movie-star looks. People complain that “Pitt just plays himself.” I have no idea if that’s true since I’ve never met Pitt and have no idea what he’s like. All I know is that, for one of the world’s most famous movie stars, he appears to have a bit of an adventurous spirit in choosing projects.

I already mentioned that Henson and Swinton are excellent, and Cate Blanchett is also very good, particularly later in the film when Daisy starts getting older and more unsure of her relationship with Benjamin. Of course, it’s probably no accident that she’s better late in the film because that’s when the Daisy character becomes more mature and more appealing to Benjamin (and the audience), and Blanchett always radiates an air of maturity.

Still, the movie falls short of the capital "g" Greatness it seems to be going for with its pedigreed cast and crew.

I’m not sure we needed the sequences centered around Hurricane Katrina, and the movie’s prologue about a watchmaker was well-made but unnecessary. I’m already on-board with the idea that a man can age backwards (and that no one seems to find this THAT weird!) so I don’t need a prologue that psedo-explains the phenomenon. Either fully explain it or let it go.

The movie also probably has one or two too many quirky characters (what was up with the guy that takes young/old Benjamin all around time and strands him in the Red Light District?), but I can overlook that given that they’re mostly there to try to lighten one of the year’s saddest movies. It’s also one of the year’s BEST-MADE movies, but just falls short of being purely one of the best.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button...B+