The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Monday’s Movie Review

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

A Meme from A Novel Menagerie

When the four of us pick a movie to see together, there can be some high consternation. But as the girls get older, there are more choices and we agree more often than not. Still I was surprised when we unanimously chose The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, over Marley and Me. I’m looking forward to seeing Marley and Me too, but perhaps I’m just feeling lucky that with two adolescent girls in the house I haven’t been dragged to see Twilight yet!(daughters 1 and 2 have seen it multiple times on their own, thank goodness).

Based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story of the same name, the elevator pitch of the story – man born old, ages in reverse – does pique curiosity. There is so much potential to explore feelings about life, death, time and living life to the fullest, and even though this movie works on many levels, I’m not sure it quite lived up to what it might have been.

CCOBB is told in flashback from the hours before Hurricane Katrina to the year of Benjamin Button’s birth in 1918 on Armistice Day. Digital technology is utilized not to wow the audience with futuristic special effects, but to make the strapping Brad Pitt believable as a diminutive old guy without resorting to bogus camera techniques. Instead of spaceships and explosions, the audience is not just given beautifully composed cinematography in rich sepia tones existing in perfect harmony with early 20th century New Orleans, but Brad Pitt, made up to be 80 years old, believably integrated on a child-like body. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when it occurred to me that in his old man face, Pitt looked exactly like current day Robert Redford (check out the scene on the bus with the young Daisy and see if you agree).

Cate Blanchett plays Daisy, the love of Benjamin’s life, who is on her deathbed telling her 40-something daughter about their unusual relationship through sharing a left-behind diary, that apparently she had never been able to bring herself to read (or perhaps couldn’t remember reading?). Both Pitt and Blanchett deliver soulful, possibly Oscar worthy performances and are well supported by the rest of the cast.

There are difficult-to-miss similarities to Forrest Gump, in plot, character and tone.This isn’t surprising because they share the same screenwriter, Eric Roth. This isn’t bothersome in itself, but perhaps the obvious call for comparison means the emotional bar was set too high for me. I didn’t leave the theater feeling warm and happy, in a slightly sad way, as I did with FG, but more just plain old sad. The message of loneliness that permeates the film, isn’t among my favorite themes; but moviegoers who have a tendency to shirk the more saccharine aspects of films like FG, may in fact prefer this.

With a constant character like Forrest, the viewer couldn’t help but be acutely aware of his effect on the cast of characters surrounding him at various points, which in turn, led to memorable secondary characters of great depth. In CCOBB, I don’t believe Benjamin, or any of the major characters dramatically changed from start to finish, except in that they went from being either young to old, or in Benjamin’s case, old to young. I think my parting sad note is the result of feeling as if I had witnessed intertwining lives that weren’t romantically destined or even altered, perhaps just hopelessly star crossed.

Beautiful cinematography, excellent performances, and an interesting soundtrack take full advantage of the vast time frame and made for a great afternoon at the movie theater. All four of us enjoyed CCOBB and my husband appreciated the fact that although the three females blubbered a little, it was still pretty tame compared to the crying he’s under the impression we’ll do at Marley and Me . And as with Australia, it was a long haul, but the 2 hr. 47 min. running time felt just right.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Popcorns (Sorry, I couldn’t get the cute little icons provided by A Novel Menagerie to behave. We ate much more than this. Actually, I alone ate much more than this.)