The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Brad Pitt sews it up
Written: Dec 30 '08 (Updated Dec 30 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Outstanding performances, script and direction
Cons: A few lapses in the special effects, it's looooong (but in a good way)
The Bottom Line: Lovely, absolutely lovely.
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| millinocket's Full Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button |
Once, long ago, I carpooled to work with a woman who lived nearby. One day as we bemoaned the fact that it was Monday, and dreamed of how we wished it were Friday, she said, "We're wishing our lives away." She didn't say it in a judgmental or condescending way. She didn't say it lightly or jokingly. She said it wistfully. I'll never forget it. It's impossible to come away from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button without the sense that too many people do, indeed, wish their lives away. And the sense that we have just seen the sort of fable that sticks to us like those simple words stuck to me all those years ago.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button tells the story of a man who lives backwards. We enter the story in a hospital, where an elderly woman lies dying as hurricane Katrina lashes the window of her room. She asks her daughter (Julia Ormond) to read aloud from a diary. It is the diary of Benjamin Button. From here we fall into the flashback style of storytelling that will continue throughout the film. The story from the diary narrated by Benjamin with added memories from the woman in the hospital bed.
Benjamin is born with all the infirmities of old age and as time passes he grows healthier, taller, stronger........and younger. His body is living its life in reverse. We enter his story as New Orleans celebrates the end of the World War I. Thomas Button (Jason Flemyng) is more concerned with his laboring wife than with the jubilant crowds, but his own celebration is cut from beneath him by the death of his wife and the terrible visage of his newborn son. In a moment of grief and cowardice he leaves the baby on the steps of a facility for the elderly. Benjamin has found a home.
The rest of the film follows the life of this singularly unusual man/boy. By the age of seven, Benjamin is being played by Brad Pitt via a combination of extraordinary make-up that ages his face and equally extraordinary special effects that allow him to become a child sized, frail old man. We journey with him as he travels through our world living a life that by nature has to be extraordinary, yet is still one that we recognize as ordinary in most ways. What he sees, experiences and learns along the way becomes a sweet, luxurious and leisurely stroll through a period of time as well as through a life well lived. That Benjamin has been given a "gift" that people wish for every single day is never lost on us - nor is the folly of that wish and the wasted time spent dwelling upon it.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is carried by its actors. Brad Pitt as Benjamin, Cate Blanchett as his lifelong friend, Taraji P. Henson as his surrogate mother and an absolutely stunning Tilda Swinton as his first love all prove that a story is only as good as those who bring it to life. Pitt has never been one to take only safe roles and he shows here once again that he is more than just a pretty face. It takes some guts to try and put a look of childlike wonder onto a face covered with make-up and looking like an old man, but he tries and he succeeds. I can't say that every one of the effects used to create his "little old man" look is seamless, but even the slightly awkward visual moments hold the appeal of capturing something of the unreal nature of the basic story. Not always perfect, but it works. A beautifully written script forms the framework for the performances and David Fincher pulls it all together with a sure and steady directorial hand. He never once doubts his ability to make this sublime fairy tale feel almost real while rending the very fabric of a youth-centric culture with its message.
Benjamin sees our lives for what they really are - spans of time filled with chances, opportunities, experiences. He weaves no soul deadening tale of the fates or how our lives are but a series of coincidences and accidents. As a child living in the body of an old man he doesn't see the limits of age. As an old man living in the body of a teenager he understands how little that strong and beautiful outer shell protects from sadness or guarantees acceptance. Benjamin Button's entire life debunks the myth of youth equating perfection that has permeated and poisoned our culture. Youth is not magical. Aging is not ugly. From it all, you get out what you put in. In a world where age 25 is quickly becoming "over the hill" this is a message that we sorely need. One we need to soak up, steep and revel in and let it free us from the constant quest to act, look and be young. That theme, as well as others both weighty and slight (including the role of chance in our lives, the real meaning of family, society's fear of the elderly and the mortality they represent, what it means to love and how not to get struck by lightning seven times) slip like quicksilver through our fingers as the story meanders along. Simply put, Benjamin Button makes us think.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is not a movie for adrenaline junkies. It moves at its own leisurely pace and is well over two hours long. It is both a character study and a fable on lives well lived and those wished away. A remarkably strong showing by the entire large cast as well as a good script and strong direction make Benjamin Button tick like the hands of a backwards clock. Even the conceit of telling the story in flashback hardly pulls us out of the core tale and when it does, it does so effectively and for good reason. I'm glad to have seen this film on the big screen, the set design is wonderful and the experience of losing yourself in a darkened theater is always fun. But it won't suffer terribly in the transition to DVD and watching at home might be preferable for those who may suffer from the long run time. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a wonderful, leisurely and affectingly told fairy tale for every adult that ever wished for the magic they thought was youth. Highly recommended.
Recommended:
Yes
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millinocket
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