A Triumph for Brad (The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (DVD))

Member Name: FairyG

Product:	The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (DVD)
Date:	08/02/09 (188 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good performances and amazing special effects.

Disadvantages: A bit Gumpish in places.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is loosely based on a story written in 1921 by F Scott Fitzgerald, the author of The Great Gatsby. In a hospital room in New Orleans an elderly woman Daisy (Cate Blanchett) is on her deathbed, with her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond) at her side. As hurricane Katrina approaches, she gives her daughter a diary which narrates the story of how she came to know Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt). With excerpts from the diary and added bits filled in by Daisy, the whole story of Benjamin's life is pieced together from the moment of his birth at the end of the World War 1 in 1918.

Benjamin is born as a tiny wizened old man. His mother dies in childbirth and his horrified father abandons him on the steps of an old people's home where he is taken in by the young African/American carer Queenie (Taraji P. Henson). He is taken in and brought up among the elderly residents, where he is treated as one of them.

However, as their lives are winding down, Benjamin's is just beginning. Although he has the body of an old man, he has the mind of a child, so there is a curious naivety about him which is recognized by Daisy, when she first meets him as a child. The story tells of their relationship as she gradually grows older and he gradually grows younger, until eventually they meet somewhere in the middle.

There are stories within stories in this film. There's the old resident of the home who remembers being struck by lightning several times and we see this in amusing flashback. There's the tugboat Captain who gives Benjamin a job and tells of how he wanted to be an artist. There's the story of a clockmaker who made a clock to go backwards at the time of Benjamin's birth. These stories are all interwoven with Benjamin's story in a way that's sometimes funny, sometimes sad or tragic, but they are all fascinating.

One thing I found implausible though, was the apparent colour blindness of everyone in the film. This is pre Civil Rights deep south in the 1920's for goodness sake! There is a nod towards racial issues when a black friend of Benjamin's narrates how he has been kept in a cage and treated as a wild animal, and he gives a demonstration, scaring the white folks. But that's about it really.

Brad Pitt as Benjamin is fantastic, subtly altering his performance to match his appearance as the years go by. The special effects are amazing and totally convincing, and really part of watching this film is not only about watching his appearance change, but marveling at it. Cate Blanchett is luminously beautiful, and also puts in an excellent performance as a woman changing in terms of both maturity and life energy as she grows older. Taraji P. Henson puts in a good performance as Benjamin's adoptive mother, changing from a flirtatious young woman to an increasingly motherly character as time goes on. Tilda Swinton puts in an impressive appearance as Elizabeth, the bored and frustrated wife of an English attaché in Murmansk. Jared Harris is terrific as tattooed, drunken Irish sea-dog Captain Mike.

Written by Forrest Gump screenwriter Eric Roth, there are inevitably Gumpish moments of philosophy from Benjamin: 'Life is a series of intersecting lives and incidents... out of anyone's control', 'We are all going the same way, just taking different roads to get there,' and 'We are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.' It's a bit hokey really, so be warned if you didn't like Forrest Gump, you might find this irritating.

At a 166 minutes long this is a bit of endurance test in the cinema where you can't just pause it and wander off to make a coffee. But I have to say it never failed to grip me and I thoroughly enjoyed just watching it all unfold. The ending is inevitable and fairly predictable, but this is not a film that needs a twist in the tail or a dramatic denouement, it's really just about one man's life led in reverse.

It's a reflective film that takes the way we view time and aging and death and throws it all up in the air. Watch it if you've got the patience to sit through a long slow-developing romantic story. There's very little in the way of excitement in this, apart from a few war scenes. It's got its faults, but it's a well crafted film and I definitely found it worth watching. If you read The Time Travellers' Wife and enjoyed it, you'll probably like this.

Directed by David Fincher (Zodiac, Panic Room, Fight Club, Alien, Se7en).
Runtime: 166 minutes
Certificate: 12A

This review is also on Helium under my pen name A Marshall

Summary: An unusual film with multiple interesting characters.