Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

It’s been a long time coming, and much over due, but here then my (quick) review of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). I saw this movie nearly two months ago, but just haven’t gotten round to write about it. The primary reason for my avoidance is that I feel it such a great movie, it deserves a proper review. However, as time passes I’m realizing that it will be unlikely for me to have enough time to really do such an in depth review as I would have hoped.

Therefore, in the short window that I have allowed myself now, I wish to do a quick perusal of an excellent film.

Let’s start with the director: David Fincher has long been one of my favourite Hollywood directors. David Fincher directed two of my favourite movies, Se7en (1995) and Fight Club (1999), both casting Brad Pitt in the lead, as well as Panic Room (2002) starring Jodie Foster, which was also excellently directed. Fincher really knows how to tell a story using the visual medium. He uses every scene economically, every scene adding to the atmosphere or current of the plot. And with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, again starring Brad Pitt, Fincher does not disappoint.

The story itself is embedded within an allegory introduced at the beginning of the film. Once there was a blind clockmaker who was commissioned to make a clock for a train station. On the day the clock was revealed to the public and set in motion for the first time, everyone was surprised to see that it ran backwards. The clockmaker announced that he did this intentionally, for his son had died in war and he wished that he could turn back time and bring back his lost son. The clock was to serve as a reminder for all people that had suffered in the past. This then becomes an analogy for Benjamin Button, the man who would live his life in reverse – growing backwards.

The premise is simple. A baby boy is born old, and while growing up he actually grows younger. And somewhere in the mix he falls in love. The classic Cate Blanchett plays Daisy, the beloved of Benjamin who is also the narrator of the story. Both Blanchett and Pitt gives lovely performances – and while both are beautiful, their beauty does not weaken the film as is often the case with Hollywood films that are based more on pretty faces than good filmmaking; rather, the beauty of the two characters is foiled against the tragedies in the story. While Benjamin grows from old (ugly) to young and beautiful, so Daisy grows from young and beautiful to old and ugly; and somewhere in the middle they meet for a short moment as mature equals.

I wish I had time to write in more detail about the themes in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

To conclude, let me quickly mention the good cinematography (as is always the case in Fincher-films). It is a splendidly shot film and the cinematographer, Claudio Miranda, won numerous awards for the cinematography in this film. Also, the special effects are brilliantly accomplished. When Brad Pitt is depicted as a teenager I was astounded. Having followed Pitt’s career over the decades, and having seen many photos of him as a young man, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how they got to turn him into that 16 year old boy again. He looked exactly as he looked 30 years ago (he is 46 this year). The film won an Oscar for visual effects as well as an Oscar for make-up.

Although a tragic story, it is one of the most beautiful love stories I have seen. This Fantasy-Drama is definitely worth seeing. It is a movie that forces you to suspend your disbelieve, and leaves you with a strange melancholy and a curious glow. Fincher uttered about the film: “You hope it will leave people feeling hopeful about certain things, and sad about certain things.” That it does.

Blanchett and Pitt played opposite each other in a previous movie, the Golden Globe-winning 2006-film, Babel. Vanity Fair did a nice article on Cate Blanchett worth reading.