The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Review- By Michael Carlisle

Title: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Year: 2008
Director: David Fincher
Country: US
Language: English

In the 21st Century, it becomes almost customary to blame Hollywood for its lack of originality and innovation. In some ways this critique holds some water; we can only tolerate so many White-Guilt and "Superhero is Jesus" metaphor movies. In some ways this critique is a vague generalization. Films like Life of Pi, Argo and 127 Hours prove that there is some saving grace in Hollywood cinema. A unique modern Hollywood film that comes to mind is David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

In the film on the day that Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, elderly Daisy Williams (nee Fuller) is on her deathbed in a New Orleans hospital. At her side is her adult daughter, Caroline. Daisy asks Caroline to read to her aloud the diary of Daisy's lifelong friend, Benjamin Button. Benjamin is a unique man who ages backwards; as he gets older his body gets younger and he will die an embryo. Benjamin's diary recounts his entire extraordinary life,

Perhaps I jumped the gun when I said The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a unique Hollywood film; it certainly is a unique short story by the great F.Scott Fitzgerald, but as a movie much of it is reminiscent of Forrest Gump. Eric Roth wrote the screenplay for both picture, so I suppose it isn't exactly plagiarism. At almost three hours long Fincher's film is an epic but it could have been cut by an hour; much of Benjamin Button seems tedious and becomes so boring that it's sleep inducing. Another critique I have is that Fincher wastes far too much time on the romance aspect of Benjamin Button and not enough on the supernatural aspect that everybody paid to see. The main character has a disease which causes him to age backwards and the Screenwriter isn't going to capitalize on it and let his imagination run wild? A film about the tragedy of aging backwards is MUCH more intriguing than two forty year olds having a fling. If I wanted that I would have seen Sex and the City 2. Even when we see Benjamin's age progression we can't quite comprehend exactly what the character is going through, because we see it from an outside perspective. Much of the aging is physical, which makes for great comedy, but a great film would show Button's mental struggles. Forrest Gump was great because we saw life as he did; we understood how his condition affected him, how he came to terms with his condition and how he persevered despite great odds.

Technically speaking, the film is very well made. The heartbreaking score brings some depth to the film, while the cinematography and lighting are top notch, as they are in everything David Fincher creates. The makeup and CGI are used incredibly well, aside from some obvious moments in the movie (Old baby Benjamin Button) it's really hard to tell the technology apart from reality. Cate Blanchette is wonderful in her role, playing Benjamin's complex girlfriend with ease and great charisma. Brad Pitt's acting fades in and out throughout the film; it's never bad, but at times it ceases to be good.

In conclusion, while The Curious Case of Benjamin Button impresses me on a technical level; it lacks any real imagination or depth. It leaves me with many questions, and not in a good way. Was there any point to this movie? Certainly it was a huge mistake to ignore their unique creative character disability in favor of romance. For a movie about time, seeing Fincher's film is time wasted. Piss on it! 2/5