Review: The Curious Cae of Benjamin Button (2008)

[Mark R. Leeper]

               THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

     CAPSULE: More than just a film, David Fincher's
     THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is a genuine
     accomplishment.  It stylistically shows a span of
     history, carefully orchestrating an evolution of
     style and mood that tracks the passing years.
     This is an intelligent fantasy with a beautifully
     sustained and intricate attention to tone.  Almost
     certainly this haunting fantasy will be my best
     film of 2008.  This is a loose adaptation and a
     translation forward in time of the story by
      F. Scott Fitzgerald from his TALES OF THE JAZZ
     AGE.  Rating: +3 (-4 to +4) or 9/10

The digital special effects revolution that is now in its fourth
decade has reached a higher point of maturity when the question is
no longer "What can I put in my movie?" and it is now "How do
effects help me to tell this story."  That is what the effects do
in THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON.  They are so seamlessly
effective in conveying the story that the director, here David
Fincher, can just tell the story he wants to tell.  In this case
the story is vaguely reminiscent of FORREST GUMP with several
parallels.  That is not surprising since Eric Roth wrote both
screenplays.  Benjamin Button (played by Brad Pitt among others in
what may come to be the role Pitt is remembered for) was born in
1919 an old man and lives his life getting younger.  Along the way
we see a wide swath of American history.  Like in FORREST GUMP we
see his tortured relationship with a woman from whom his condition
separates him.  This is Daisy, played beautifully (when an adult)
by Cate Blanchett.  In this case his relationship starts out
grandfatherly and the two get closer to the same age until they
pass each other into a relationship reminiscent of the end of
FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON.

At 159 minutes, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is very
deliberately paced to lull the viewer into the period feel and to
allow him to ease into the fantasy story.  Yet there is always more
than enough on the screen to involve the viewer.  Fincher creates
the feel of the period directly and by insetting small stories done
in the style of cinema of the time.  All sorts of technical aspects
are done very nicely including makeup that ages (or un-ages) the
characters.  One finds oneself impressed with Cate Blanchett's
dancing, but later wondering if it might be the result of digital
wizardry.  The one place where the attention to detail lets us down
is in insufficient resemblance between actors playing the same
character at different ages.

The tale is told in flashback, read from a letter once written to a
woman now dying in a New Orleans hospital.  The letter tells the
story of the life of the title character.  His mother died giving
him birth and his father (Jason Flemyng), in grief and abhorrence
for the monstrous looking baby, rejects him and leaves him on the
step of an underfunded nursing home.  From birth the child looks
more like an old man, which is just what he turns out to be
physically.  He is adopted by the black care-giver Queenie
(lovingly played by Taraji P. Henson) and raised as an old man in
the home.  Eric Roth's screenplay sticks to purely fictional
characters, but he does meet someone who is based on the real-life
Ota Benga, the pygmy who was put in a zoo.

This film is a technical triumph, but not one whose touches call
attention away from the plot line.  It is a beautiful mood piece.
I rate it +3 on the -4 to +4 scale or 9/10.  Side note: I do not
think we saw all seven lightning strikes.  I think it was 2-2-1-1.
Did I miss one?

Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0421715/>

What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/curious_case_of_benjamin_button/>


					Mark R. Leeper
					mleeper at optonline.net
					Copyright 2008 Mark R. Leeper