The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

After The Dark Knight, this was the movie I was waiting all year to see. Before I saw a trailer or pictures or anything, I wanted to see it. I wanted to see it based on three things: Brad Pitt, David Fincher and it was about a guy aging backwards. Those three things combined assured me of awesomeness. After a beautiful trailer, great reviews, some great write ups and one awesome Pitt Rolling stone interview, my appetite for this movie was insatiable. I needed it in my life. I was pinning high hopes on Benjamin Button, which can ultimately spell bad news for a movie, but this was Brad Pitt and David Fincher. The men that combined for Fight Club and Se7en, two of my favourite movies. Hell, Fincher even made Jodie Foster watchable in Panic Room! Plus, it was a movie about a guy aging in reverse!

The year is 2005. A woman is near death in a hospital, her daughter is by her side and outside Hurricane Katrina is slowly making her way to the shore of New Orleans. The old woman, Daisy(Cate Blanchett) asks her daughter, Caroline(Julia Ormond) to get a diary out of her bag and asks her to read it aloud. We then hear another voice, the voice of Benjamin as he tells us "My name is Benjamin Button, and I was born under unusual circumstances. While, everyone else was agin', I was gettin' younger... all alone." Benjamin's mother died during child birth and his father could not bare the sight of him, so he left him on a random door step and Benjamin was picked up by a black woman, Queenie(Taraji P. Henson). The doctor does not believe Benjamin will live long, but he keeps on living. He is raised in an old folks home,where death is a constant companion. Benjamin is an ordinary person, living an ordinary life in extraordinary circumstances. He meets a girl, Daisy, when she is 7 and he 9, but he looks like an old man. When Benjamin gets his legs under him he goes off to sea. He is a hard worker, but is still ordinary. He goes to war, comes home and looks closer to 40 in age now. His real father reveals himself to Benjamin and Benjamin finds his real last name is Button and his Father dies leaving everything to Benjamin. Benjamin and Daisy meet up again, this time Daisy a young woman in her 20s and Benjamin looking like he is in his 40s. They share a sensual moment, but Benjamin rejects it. He works at the old folks home and continues to live an ordinary life. He and Daisy reconnect again, this time they are "meeting in the middle" and they have an awful lot of sex. However, Benjamin knows what is coming in his life and he refuses to let Daisy deal with it, so he leaves her. He now looks like he is 20 and he is touring the world, doing everything and anything a man can do in his life. He tells us that you are never too old to start again. This is your life and life is not measured in minutes but moments.

Eric Roth(Forrest Gump) has written a script that is long, slow, insightful and just a bit self important and it works most of the time. However, there is an emotional disconnect I felt during the movie. There were moments where I should have been moved to tears, but something was missing. I am under the impression that was the narrative style that left me feeling disjointed. Daisy narrated, Caroline narrated and Benjamin narrated and I think using the three different narrators caused this detachment from the story. Whose story were we hearing? Was this Daisy's life where Benjamin is featured, or is this Benjamin's life? I enjoyed the idea of a diary of events, but there was something missing throughout the whole film. Perhaps it is just because the premise is so odd that is difficult to comprehend, or maybe because the whole thing is kind of creepy with Benjamin and Daisy, especially the end, yikes! There are tons of great lines about life, death, love and living life and thematically it is not hard to understand what is going on here. Benjamin's condition is considered a miracle, and maybe it is. Perhaps he lived the life he did because of how he was born. Maybe he was so open to experiences because of the unusual circumstances of his birth. Maybe being raised around death or knowing that death could always be around the corner for him, made him understand life is to be cherished.

Whatever disconnect we feel, though, is softened by the tragic and timeless love story of Daisy and Benjamin. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are magnificent together and they are able to play versions of their characters at various ages and we see a progression in both of them. They are both full of love and life and when they come together it is beautiful. Pitt is mesmerizing in every moment of this movie and he transforms himself over and over again. Some of his best work comes when he isn't even saying anything. There is a scene where he goes to New York to surprise Daisy and it does not go well and Pitt does not say anything for at least a few minutes, but we can tell exactly what he is thinking. We understand what is in his heart and his soul, just with his eyes and his lips. It breaks your heart to see someone so good and know you will never be that good. It has been said that playing real people gets people an Oscar because we know too much about our actors and only see them unless they are playing someone else who actually existed and I hope that is not the case, because at this moment, Pitt is my pick for best actor of the year. Blanchett also gets to age, playing Daisy from 20 until her 80s and she is remarkable. I have always loved her but she is soaring in the role here. As Benjamin's mother, Taraji P Henson just shines. She is radiant, lovable, and heartbreaking. She is an actress on the cusp of something huge and this should push her over.

It is impossible to talk about this movie without talking about the technological side. Using the kind of CGI that is popular in video games, Pitt's face is successfully transplanted on other bodies, so Pitt can be Benjamin for pretty much the entire movie. Then we have the make up. What glorious make up it is. Brad Pitt, in Benjamin's 60s looks exactly like Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise. How this is even possible is so glorious and outstanding that I hope it gets recognition. I was consistently amazed by how the movie looked as well as what was going on. The war in reverse shot featured in the trailer looks even more impressive on the big screen and is a bit longer and there is a truly impressive action sequence on a boat that rivals The Titanic for sheer at-sea-awesomeness. It shows that Fincher doesn't only understand how to tell a story, he can use effects and action stunts to further his story telling abilities. I wonder how long until he tackles a big summer project.

Considering the massive scope of the story and the hindrances from a screen writer a bit too in love with Forrest Gump, The Curious case of Benjamin Button is an excellent movie that underwhelmed on the emotional side, but that could be just a by product of a story so strange and creepy. The performances are stunning and the technical side is unrivaled in pictures like this. I was hoping to feel something emotional, but I will settle for watching great actors do great work and I will settle for a movie whose themes include taking advantage of the moments we have because life is measured by those moments and even the most ordinary of men can live a life worth telling.

Final Grade: A-