BENJAMIN BUTTON--OR, HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE BRAD PITT
Written: Mar 16 '09 (Updated Mar 16 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great directing, production design and special effects; Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Teraji Henson, Brad Pitt
Cons: Brad Pitt; derivative and very facile
The Bottom Line: David Fincher leaves serial killers and panic rooms behind in surprising favor of THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, a sprawling, sentimental fantasy featuring Brad Pitt aging in reverse
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| jarvococker's Full Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button |
There's a tour de force sequence midway through David Fincher's THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON which speaks to the film's musings on fate and chance with stunning clarity. Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) narrates the minutiae of disconnected events and characters on an afternoon in Paris which leads to his beloved Daisy (Cate Blanchett) getting struck by a cab, destroying her leg and ending her ballet career. Button's voiceover continues to wonder if just ONE fraction of a detail out of the unfortunate chain reaction had been different--if say the cab's passenger hadn't paused to take a phone call--Daisy would probably be fine. This of course invites the more interesting question--would Daisy still have fallen in love with Benjamin if the accident hadn't occurred?
Even more to the point--how could Benjamin possibly know with such precise detail events neither he nor Daisy were present to witness? THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON never tries to explain. The film after all is an epic fantasy, and an endlessly fascinating one at that. Written by Eric Roth and directed with surprising relish by David Fincher (More known for pitch black thrillers like "Se7en," "Fight Club" and "Zodiac") BENJAMIN BUTTON is a sprawling, brilliantly acted, visually astounding mess of a film that is as ambitious as it is overtly sentimental. To what end ambition if the more realistic aspects of the film coalesce with the fairy tale tropes to form a muddled whole? BENJAMIN BUTTON deserves to be more fascinating still.
The film takes it's title and fantastical, aging in reverse premise from a bizarre story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The similarities end there. Where Fitzgerald dreamed up an interesting storyline and milked it for all its charming, farcical worth (It's actually very funny), screenwriter Roth and director Fincher have kept the basics and stretched it out into a nearly three hour rumination on the Meaning of Life. This would be smashing indeed if Benjamin Button's extraordinary circumstances--born old and getting progressively younger--didn't beget such an ordinary onscreen life. Or if BENJAMIN BUTTON didn't completely nick it's simple, moral template from "Forrest Gump," a more effective screen journey through the 20th Century likewise written by Roth. BENJAMIN BUTTON often feels like a screen experiment in which Fincher and his army of film technicians dared to see if they could pull off the sophisticated wizardry entailed in taking Pitt--one of the most recognizable, unbelievably handsome actors on the planet--and through make up and visual effects transforming him into both an old and much younger man (One of the unintentional jokes seems to be that even under the guise of an old man Pitt has no problem scoring with the ladies). To be sure they pull this off wonderfully, but did Benjamin Button himself have to be so placid?
And yet BENJAMIN BUTTON weaves a compelling tale. Dropping Fitzgerald's latter half of the 19th Century, Baltimore setting in favor of early 20th Century New Orleans, viewers get Button's birth the night the first World War has ended. Immediately Button's circumstances are tempered with alarming melodrama and the first of many saving graces. Abandoned by his wealthy father (Jason Flemyng), Button is taken in by Queenie (A tender, colorful Taraji P. Henson), the barren caretaker at an old age home. Button's early life is thus shadowed by the constant presence of death, informing him with a valuable education that life is too precious to waste. While this is indeed inspiring, it's also rather simplistic. And continues for another two hours.
Early on Button is introduced to Daisy (Played in young age by Elle Fanning, among others), the granddaughter of one of the home's inhabitants. They strike up a close kinship based on a similarly unique, if mismatched, innocence. Their evolving friendship will ground the film in sweeping romance and eventual heartache. As the years pass and Button continues to grow younger, he leaves the New Orleans nest to join a tugboat captained by Mike (A terrific Jared Harris). His exploits will take Button to the farthest reaches of the world, an extended sojourn in a Russian seaport where he tastes the first fruits of love with the lonely wife (The excellent Tilda Swinton) of a British spy, and even the naval arena of World War II. Sequences such as Button's brief romance with Swinton's Elizabeth Abbott have a marvelously delicate intimacy which may come as a shock to fans of Fincher, and illustrate love as a fleeting enterprise, which will come handy when Button eventually takes up with the more adventurous, grown up Daisy. Their relationship blossoms for years until Button, uneasy about his rapidly advancing condition, must confront a very difficult personal decision.
Remember almost a decade ago Brad Pitt appeared in Fincher's "Fight Club" as the embodiment of masculine perfection? How ironic that Fincher again taps Pitt to trade in on his astonishing looks in a story where, against all odds, Pitt gets even better looking as the film progresses? One might accuse the actor of serious vanity, but watching Pitt in BENJAMIN BUTTON viewers can easily dismiss this notion. As the titular character, Pitt has rarely been this emotionally passive, and encounters each adventure with the same quizzical wonder and detached curiosity. The story may have been better served if Benjamin Button had more personality, but Pitt is quite effective in the role, particularly when under loads of makeup. Still, it's hard sometimes not to get the impression of Benjamin as a bystander in his own film.
One of the effects of Pitt giving such a low key performance is that the actors around him continuously overshadow him. Cate Blanchett in particular is stunning, and gives such a sparkling, luminous performance as the adult Daisy. Indeed, some of the best scenes in the film showcase Blanchett's surprising physical grace performing in various ballet productions, or solo just for Benjamin (A smashing scene). It may have been more interesting if Daisy noticeably aged as the decades pass, and Benjamin gradually loses interest in her (As Benjamin loses interest in his wife in the story), but the Daisy/Button relationship is meant to be one of the great love stories in screen history. While definitely romantic, they fall short.
As aforementioned, Henson and Swinton are superlative in supporting performances. Henson especially is so sweet as Queenie, would it have killed Button to shed a few tears for her? And Swinton is so good as the adulterous Elizabeth, I actually missed her after she suddenly leaves. "I can feel the wind in your cheek," Elizabeth sublimely tells Button before planting a kiss on him. I honestly preferred the Elizabeth/ Button romance to that with Daisy, and wish the story had explored this further. But as the film takes great pains and a long time to remind viewers: nothing lasts forever.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON boasts insanely gorgeous production values, which actually trump the narrative while in the service of the story. Who would have thought that David Fincher would bring the same passion and amazing visionary craft to a sweet, sentimental story as this as he brought to his darker, more violent films? Claudio Miranda's photography is fantastic. Alexandre Desplat's score is lovely. The production designers (Who won a well deserved Oscar) vividly bring turn of the century New Orleans to life. The make up and special effects are out of this world great. The best moments in the film are when Fincher's images fuse together in magical harmony with the effects, such as the running gag of the man who gets hit by lightning seven times but somehow lived to tell about it. In instances such as these viewers can feel BENJAMIN BUTTON bursting off the celluloid. More important, such images feed into the overall theme of not taking life for granted. But the sensation doesn't last.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Date Movie
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Script
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jarvococker
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Member: marcelo deugarte
Location: bethesda, md
Reviews written: 299
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And the hand that rocks you cuts you up like lyrics of your life.
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