The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a strange fairy tale about a pretty common fantasy, that of getting the hardships of old age out of the way when you are young so that you may one day enjoy your youth with the benefit of experience and wisdom. Unfortunately that is not necessarily the movie that David Fincher filmed. Yes, Benjamin Button (played by Brad Pitt) is born with all the trappings of old age into interesting times, but as time passes he becomes a boring young man that somehow avoids pretty much all the interesting things that have happened in the last 60 years. Yeah, he briefly flirts with the pacific front of WW2 and he does bang the wife of a Nazi spy, but when it comes to getting photoshopped into historical events he is certainly no Forrest Gump.

That’s why I’ll mostly dedicate this review to the first half of the movie, since that is where all the interesting events, performances and effects are clumped into. As I said, Benjamin Button comes into the world as an old man, so his father promptly abandons him at the door of an old folks home (after failing to drown the poor infant). Fearing that the poor child is not long for this world, the young black couple that runs the place take him in and raise him as their own. This place houses some of the best characters in the film, from his concerned and loving parents to the many elderly eccentrics who end up his childhood playmates. Also in that home he meets the young Daisy (Cate Blanchett), who he is destined to one day fall in love with when their bodies match the age of their souls. The romance unfortunately acts to sap the movies other strengths, since it forces Pitt to switch gears.

For me there have always been two Brad Pitts, the eccentric character actor and the wooden romance movie mannequin. They are easy to tell apart, one is usually bouncing off the walls while the other one stares into the camera longingly. At first Brad Pitt glows under all that wrinkly makeup and effects, but he eventually reaches the “Sexiest Man Alive” phase of his life and it is as though a light goes out behind his eyes. In other Benjamin Button and Daisy are two ships headed in opposite directions, meeting only for a brief moment as equals. In my perception of the movie, the ship that is Benjamin simply sinks at that moment and the camera follows the unremarkable journey of Daisy instead.

Still easily the best part of Benjamin Button is that flawless mixture of music, cinematography and editing employed by director David Fincher. Even though the plot loses its way the movie still remains strangely entrancing from beginning to end, largely due to just how beautiful it is to watch. And I’m a big proponent that a good ending can pretty much cover up a lot of flaws, and David Fincher’s ending is a contemplative study of death but also an uplifting poem about life. So in terms of the Oscars let me put it this way, it is not best picture material but it is certainly one of the best directed movies this year.