The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (DVD))

Member Name: DavidJay

Product:	The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (DVD)
Date:	13/10/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Thoughtful, funny, beautifully shot...

Disadvantages: It may be a touch dubious with regards matters of race...

The worst thing one can say about the weakest David Fincher film is that it's "a touch underwhelming given it's a Fincher." The Game, by most standards, is a cracking thriller - just a touch underwhelming given it's a Fincher. Panic Room has an astonishing first hour and a disappointing and over-long third act - on the whole, though, great stuff, just a touch underwhelming given it's a Fincher.

(I'm not counting Alien 3 here since no-one was expecting anything from Fincher at that stage - from the franchise maybe, but no-one was debating on the Ain't It Cools or where have you about what twists and turns the bloke who did Vogue by Madonna might throw at us next)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, based on a charming F. Scott Fitzgerald short (and I mean short) story about a man who is born an old fella and over time grows young, is nowhere near as disappointing as those pictures were - pictures which were only disappointing given the director. That is to say, it's not disappointing at all. If it falls a touch short of Seven or Fight Club or Zodiac, well - that's Seven and Fight Club and Zodiac we're talking about! What DOESN'T fall short of them?

So hush and sod off to those cries of "sentimentality!" (God almighty! Sentimentality!!!! What next???), "Forrest Gump 2!", "over-long mawkish bilge" or whatever - Benjamin Button is an utterly bewitching piece of work. It's nuanced, it's characters are intriguing, fascinating and often very funny (I got struck by lightening seven times...)it's got a gorgeous near-Jeunet aesthetic going on at times, and for a film so "sentimental" and "mawkish", by GOD it's got the fierce morbid mind on it.

This is about death - death of individuals, death of communities, of ideals, of states (geographical and mental) -about America, or a particular idea of America. There's a reason why this story unfolds in New Orleans, and why Katrina hangs over proceedings as a mist. This is about myth and history and the manner by which one bleeds into the other. It's about handed-down tales and the truths those tales force us to confront.

The performances are uniformly excellent - although most of Brad Pitt's work as the titular wanderer is, perhaps inevitably, upstaged by the colossal digital imaging feat which renders him simultaneously old and young - it's a staggering achievement.

And yes, there are similarities to Forrest Gump - the films share a screenwriter - but those similarities are superficial, and it says a lot about our perception of the mentally disabled that we might equate Forrest Gump with the kind of mythical, near-supernatural character presented herein. Forrest Gump was reactionary and right-wing (or maybe not if some critics, Mark Kermode for instance, are to be heeded) whilst The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is beguiling and enchanting and provocative and I can't sing its praises loud enough. *

*That said, there are certain matters regarding race - New Orleans embodied as a rich white woman? - which prove a touch hard to stomach.

Summary: Forrest Gump 2? No. Next.