The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Two-Disc Criterion Collection) DVD Review

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 05.15.2009

David Fincher's instant classic gets the Criterion Collection treatment. But are the special features worth the extra cash?

Directed by: David Fincher
Written by: Eric Roth

Starring:
Brad Pitt - Benjamin Button – apparent adult
Cate Blanchett - Daisy Fuller – adult
Taraji P. Henson - Queenie
Julia Ormond - Caroline Fuller
Jason Flemyng - Thomas Button
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali - Tizzy Weathers
Jared Harris - Captain Mike
Elias Koteas - Monsieur Gateau
Phyllis Somerville - Grandma Fuller
Josh Stewart - Pleasant Curtis
Tilda Swinton - Elizabeth Abbott
Ed Metzger - Theodore Roosevelt
Spencer Daniels - Benjamin Button – apparent age 12
Elle Fanning - Daisy Fuller – age 6
Madisen Beaty - Daisy Fuller – age 11

Domestic Gross: $127,509,326
Worldwide Gross: $329,809,326

DVD Release Date: 5/5/2009
Running Time: 165 minutes



Rated PG-13 for brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking

In today’s age of Hollywood films, adaptations are more commonplace than ever before. Aside from the glut of remakes and TV-to-movie adaptations, movie studios are constantly looking for written works to newly adapt into successful projects that will attract movie-goers to the theater for their hard-earned money. Considering the many high-profile literary adaptations that hit the big screens in 2008 from Twilight to the many comic book films to The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, it is perhaps surprising that among the most acclaimed movies of the year came from a short story few modern film-goers were familiar with. Still, 2008 seemed to be the year that The Case of Benjamin Button shined above almost every adaptation released. The F. Scott Fitzgerald story, written in 1921, was tied up in development rights for years by movie mogul Ray Stark, until upon his death in 2004 the rights were purchased from his estate and pushed toward development. David Fincher, Eric Roth and Brad Pitt came on board as director, screenwriter and star respectively and the project went into full development following the completion of Fincher’s film Zodiac. Released in December of 2008, the film received widespread critical acclaim and thirteen Oscar nominations, though it lost out in most categories and ended up with only three—all for technical categories. That setback notwithstanding, the film has still been held up as a modern masterpiece and the Criterion Collection, a distribution company that produces home video versions of what it considers some of the most important films in history, chose it to be among its collection, the first recent movie to do so since 2006’s little-known silent film Brand upon the Brain!.

The Movie

The film starts with elderly Daisy Fuller (Blanchett), laying on her deathbed in a New Orleans hospital in August of 2005. As Hurricane Katrina approaches, Daisy asks her daughter Caroline (Ormond) to read to her from a diary. The diary is that of Benjamin Button (Pitt), a man who is born as an old man on his deathbed and proceeds to grow physically younger as he grows chronologically older. Abandoned by his father Thomas (Flemyng), he is adopted by a young woman named Queenie (Henson) who works at a nursing home. He's raised among the elderly and meets a young Daisy (Fanning), and the two share a very close bond. Eventually he decides to make his own way in the world and has his own adventures, meeting a drunkard tugboat captain/tattooist (Harris), having an affair with the swimmer wife of a British spy (Swinton) and having many other experiences. Throughout it all, he always finds him returning home, and to Daisy as she grows and they get closer to age, with her approaching her twilight years and him approaching his youth.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a man widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Several people took passes at adapting it into a workable script before Eric Roth came along. Roth is best known previously for penning Forrest Gump, and the comparisons between that film and this one have been much-discussed. Certainly, both of them feature a lifetime of history experienced by one extraordinary man and both involve that one man's dedication to a singular woman throughout the years, but Benjamin Button is a less cynical and more honest love story then Gump, and the lack of cynicism proves to be a benefit. It is more accurate to say this was inspired by the Fitzgerald story than it is truly based off of it, as Roth diverges widely and often from the original story. This is a wise decision, as the story he creates is a more cinematic and meaningful one, filled with interesting, diverse and memorable characters. The focus of course is on Daisy and Benjamin, but each of the characters that feature significantly in Benjamin's life get time to shine and the impact they leave is both profound and important without being shoved down the viewer's throat. Roth has written great scripts before, including Ali, Munich and The Insider, but never before has he created a story with the epic feel that Benjamin Button has without sacrificing characters and dramatic credibility, nor has he captured the zeitgeist of the historical eras he's capturing as well as he does here. In terms of script, characterization and honest emotional impact, this is clearly Roth's finest work and he very much excels.

Even with a script as good as Roth's, this film could have easily been a failure without the right director. This story needed a visionary director and David Fincher certainly fits that bill. Fincher has built his well-deserved reputation as one of the top directors in Hollywood on the back of projects such as Se7en, The Game, Fight Club and 2007's excellent Zodiac. With Benjamin Button Fincher has brought his A-game, melding cutting edge green-screen use and other digital effects with his superb sense of storytelling. Fincher was involved with this project for a number of years and his emotional investment in it is obvious by the care and attention he pays to all aspects of the production. He does some excellent work collaborating with cinematographer Claudio Miranda, who he worked with on Zodiac, in crafting a beautiful-looking film, full of style and wonder. Occasional cut-scenes of one character recounting how he’s been repeatedly struck by lightning have a very authentic aged look to them, a little touch that just adds nicely to the film and reinforces the auteur feel of the big-budget production. Fincher’s production team, headed by designer Donald Graham Burt, recreate locations on both sides of the Atlantic with pain-staking effort and the results are spectacular. New Orleans looks simply fantastic and with the present-day scenes taking place as Hurricane Katrina moves closer and closer, the early-era depictions of the city are in many ways as bittersweet as Benjamin’s story itself.

Much has been made about the special effects in the movie and deservedly so; they are nothing less than incredible. The digital effects made to portray Pitt as Benjamin throughout the years is practically flawless; at no point in the film does it look out of place, at least until Benjamin grows too young and Benjamin is portrayed by a younger actor, Spencer Daniels. Daniels does a very good job playing the role in his brief scenes, but it does seem somewhat jarring when Pitt’s face is seamlessly added in throughout all of the younger years (save a mechanical infant for the post-birth scene). Just as impressive are the green-screen scenes that integrate in the film without ever seeming like green-screen, only being obvious because we as an audience know there’s no way they filmed the scenes practically. The film’s Academy Award for visual effects is well-earned and certainly raised the bar for the way such elements can be used in a major dramatic film. Alexandre Desplat’s score is also quite impressive, complementing the story brilliantly and never missing a beat.

As much as the technical merits deserve accolades and Fincher’s direction is to be lauded, what ultimately makes this film as great as it is lies in the performances. Brad Pitt has proven to have one of the most consistent track records in his choice of acting jobs in quite some time, always picking incredible roles that give the talented actor a chance to shine. Benjamin Button is one of his finest, and he portrays Benjamin with a refined, understated manner that truly sells the character in a way few others would have. He portrays the titular character with pitch-perfect skill throughout the man’s life, taking the character on a journey that one can’t help but fall into. That one actor could play every aspect of a long life lived in reverse is an amazing accomplishment, and Pitt manages to capture the opposite spectrums of the character’s physical and emotional ages incredibly well. As good as Pitt is, some might say that Cate Blanchett has just as difficult of a job. Daisy as written could become a very unlikable character, but Blanchett infuses her with such charm, playing her through a thinner spectrum of life but still having a long arc to deal with, and she handles herself well. Tilda Swinton brings her prodigious talents to a relatively short but important role as Elizabeth, and Jared Harris really sinks his teeth into the larger-than-life role of Captain Mike. The entire cast brings their all to this film as much as the director does, and it’s the love for the film and detail they put into their characters that makes such an unlikely story succeed.

Of all the actors however, none excel quite like Taraji B. Henson. Henson has had a successful career in low-profile roles, her greatest successes being Hustle & Flow, Smokin’ Aces and Four Brothers. With her performance as Queenie, Henson elevates her game to the next level and has her coming-out party in Hollywood. She invests such likability in the character, such an honest and generous nature that it is impossible not to like her. When she first discovers Benjamin she immediately takes him in, because that’s simply what’s in her nature, and with Henson’s expressive face and warm delivery we easily believe that. When she comforts him after being scolded for playing with a young Daisy by the girl’s grandmother who believes him to simply be an old man who has no business being under a table with a little girl after dark, we find ourselves sympathizing with the lead character even more because of Henson’s complete and whole-hearted love for her adopted son. Henson is quickly proving herself to be one of the top rising stars in Hollywood, and her Oscar attention only means she’ll have greater opportunities coming her way, as long as she chooses well. Few are more deserving.

Ultimately The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a love story—not just a man for a woman, the concept of youth or New Orleans, but of life itself. It is only appropriate that so much love for the film obviously went into creating it, and in many ways, that is the best part of the movie. If only all romances were created with such honest affection and dedication, we may be seeing a different age in Hollywood.

Film Rating: 9.0

The Video

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is presented in its original 2.40:1 widescreen ration, anamorphic and enhanced for 16:9 televisions. To say that it is a good transfer is an extreme understatement. The benefit of shooting a film digitally is becoming clearer and clearer thanks to DVD releases, as there are no nicks, marks, scratches or other flaws that can show up on standard film. Indeed, the only flaws are purposely put there in order to make some of the film look aged and historical, which works quite well. There are a few very minor compression flaws visible; this is to be expected with such a long film, and even though the first disc is only the film and the audio commentary, Paramount was unable to keep it absolutely pristine. Still, it looks as good as it can possibly look, with colors coming through as strongly as intended. The image is a bit soft, but that only adds to the film’s fantastical feel and is more a case of the digital filming and stylistic choice then a poor transfer. Only someone truly discerning will be able to detect the compression flaws, and average movie watcher will likely not notice at all.

Video Rating: 8.5

The Audio

Paramount and Criterion have given Benjamin Button the industry standard 5.1 Dolby Digital audio track, available in English, French or Spanish. The sound is, much like the video, an excellent transfer as is typical of Criterion releases. All channels are effectively utilized, with ambient sounds doing an excellent job of bringing one into Fincher’s world. When the big sound effects scenes come, such as the storm and the war scenes, they carry across quite vigorously. At the same time, Alexandre Desplat’s Oscar-nominated score is quite impressive and levels nicely with the rest of the sounds, never overtaking the other elements or making it hard to hear them. This is an impressive achievement in sound that lives up to the Criterion label. Subtitles are available in English, French and Spanish, and the special features are captioned as well.

Audio Rating: 9.0

The Packaging

Criterion, as usual, has presented an exceptional package in which to house the two-disc set. The outer case is a clear keep case, the cover a simple yet powerful black design that identifies it as a Criterion Collection DVD. The well-known halves of Pitt and Blanchett’s face look out from the front cover while the black talks about the technical specs quite up-front instead of hiding it the way many DVD’s do; a slip case is identical in design to the DVD covers. Inside is a six-page insert that includes cast and crew credits, credits for the special features and a well-written three-page essay on the film by critic Kent Jones. The DVD menus are black and white images, easy to navigate and featuring ambient sounds for Disc One and behind the scenes audio on Disc Two. The efforts made aren’t garish but work, and go a long way toward selling the movie and DVD set as something truly special.

Packaging Rating: 8.5

Special Features

Audio Commentary by director David Fincher: The sole bonus feature on the first disc, this commentary by Fincher is a great listen. Fincher is known for delivering good commentaries and this one is no exception as he talks at length about both the technical and story aspects of the film. Fincher is quite candid in some portions, addressing some of the criticism that was directed at the film and joking about Blanchett’s drawn-out speech pattern as the hospital-ridden age Daisy. He’s not the most animated of speakers (though a bit of profanity does make its way into the commentary) but what he lacks in excitement he makes up for in detail, taking the audience deeper into the movie which is exactly what a good commentary should do.

Disc two is purely bonus features, and the meat of them is organized in “The Curious Birth of Benjamin Button” under one of four sections. There is a “Play All” selection for this whole set, which will play all of the four sections concurrently while leaving the still galleries within each section out. Each of the still galleries are also contained within their own accessible section off the main menu for the disc.

First Trimester: This covers all the phases before the filming began. “Preface” (3:59) starts with Fincher comparing the ease of being there for someone’s birth against that of being there for a death, and moves onto him relating it to the experience of being present for his own father’s passing. He relates this very nicely to what attracted him to the script for Benjamin Button and why he took it on. It’s short, but as it is a preface to the section as a whole that’s quite acceptable.

The next featurette of the first trimester is “Development and Pre-Production” (26:04), which goes quite in-depth as to the conceptualizing and pre-filming experiences that creating the film entailed. Producer Kathleen Kennedy, former Universal executive Josh Donen talk about the origins of the film’s development in 1988 and the issues of finding a conflict to drive the story. They talk about Steven Spielberg’s near-involvement with the film and the film’s languishing after that fact, then move onto Fincher’s eventual coming on board. They provide a great amount of detail about the film’s development and coalescing, including the challenges of casting the main role at the time in 1991 to 1992 when digital effects simply weren’t possible and it would have required several different actors. There is a brief discussion of Spike Jonez’s quirkier concept of the film when he signed on in 2000, and then his departure when Eric Roth came on board to do the script. Roth talks in-depth about his treatment of the film and Fincher talks about coming back on board. Brad Pitt talks a little about he came on board and his discussions of the project with Fincher; Blanchett talks about her excitement for the role and they then move on to talk about doing the initial old aging screen test. They move on to location scouting and production design, with some discussion of financing the movie, which caused the move of the setting to New Orleans. The last bit has the cast and crew talking about how Hurricane Katrina hit and both how that effected them emotionally and how it affected the production. It’s an excellent all-around look at the process for preparing to shoot such a major film.

The rest of the First Trimester features, not part of the Play All option, are still quite good. The first is “Tech Scouts” (12:23) which provides a behind the scenes look at the scouting and set-up of particular locations for specific thoughts. It’s followed by two still galleries, one for storyboarding and one for art direction The storyboard galleries offer over 200 storyboards, mostly hand-drawn but a few digital, while the art direction has just under fifty. Both are quite impressive.

Second Trimester: The second trimester is broken up into four pieces. “Production: Part 1” (26:12) covers the beginning of production through to the middle. The crew talks about the challenges of the film’s scope, from the over 200 locations to cover and the arduous length of the shoot before going on to show us the behind the scenes elements of the World War I scene with the stunt and pyrotechnics talking about how carefully they planned everything out. They cover the production of the train set and the fireworks scenes, the latter of which were largely CG to avoid setting the largely wood city on fire, and then moves on through various scenes and interviews with cast and crew talking about how they got involved. Makeup effects are covered as well as the cinematography by Director of Photography Claudio Miranda; the latter includes a technical discussion of camera use. An interview with Taraji B. Henson is particularly nice, as she talks about developing a dynamic with each of the actors in such a way as to make it genuine once Pitt’s face was superimposed. The last portion focuses on the location scouting of the main location, and the process they went through. “Production: Part 2” (29:06) picks up exactly where the first part leaves off, making one wonder why they cut it in two. It continues the discussion of the main location and how they prepped it to work for what they needed, including building a servant’s house. They show more scenes of filming one of the Benjamin actors with the young Daisy, and more with the older stand-in with Jared Harris. There’s an in-depth amount of material on the production and filming of the Chelsea, and then the cast talks specifically about working with Fincher. At times the discussion of the various production sets seems to become overkill, but it’s all fascinating information so it never falters. “Costume Design” (7:38) and “Costume Gallery” are not included in the Play All; the first is a featurette with Jacqueline West talking about her process in designing the costumes for the various eras in the film and the second is a still gallery showing off twenty five different examples of West’s beautiful costumes.

Third Trimester: This is the only section that does not have any features not included in the “Play All” option. There are five Visual Effects shorts; the first is called “Performance Capture” (7:42) outlines the various performance captures of the characters that would need it including each of the Benjamins. Editors Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall provide most of the narration and discussion, talking about the process of putting together the performance captures while Fincher was shooting the movie; like many effects featurettes, it’s very interesting to see how many elements become one perfect shot; this one in particular gives a very in-depth idea of how the editors worked with Fincher to do the effects editing. “Benjamin” (16:53) focuses on the specific process that the visual effects team used to create Benjamin, and features many of the team, Fincher and others talking about their decisions around the process and how they tried to make sure Benjamin didn’t end up looking like a monster. This one goes into much more detail about the process Pitt went into, including the sculpting process to create the base models for Pitt at different ages and acting while wearing sort of a green facial mask-type paint; we also see previsualization work that is phenomenal for those who have seen previz on the special features of other films. This feature really gets across how ground-breaking the work is, and it really leaves one blown away. “Youthenization” (6:21) focuses on the equally-difficult task of making Pitt and Blanchett look younger than he did, and digital effects company Lola features prominently in this one. Their work on the film is extraordinary and that fact is deeply underscored by this short, in which visual effects supervisor Edson Williams amusingly notes that most of the work they’ve done on other films is so secretive, they’re not allowed to talk about it (though a quick look through IMDB reveals some interesting possibilities). The side-by-side shots of Pitt and Blanchett filming and the final digital project are truly astounding and help make this one a must-see.

“The Chelsea” (8:47) focuses on the creation of the effects that surround the filming of the tugboat scenes, and covers both the practical effects of constructing a rig for the actual boat that can move and shake with the “waves” and the digital effects of the water, storm and background. One might not think that water has so much involved in making a CGI version of it, but one would be quite wrong in that assessment. “The Simulated World” (12:50) deals with most of the green-screen effects, from the exterior scenes of New Orleans to the train station scene to the aerial scene of Paris, and how the days of matte painting have given way to the modern computer graphics era. The level of detail the VFX crew puts into the work is outstanding and it really pays off in subtle ways to make it look legit; one would be very hard-pressed to be able to tell that the Paris shot wasn’t really filmed from a camera for example, but after seeing this it undeniably is.

The last two features in this section focus on the sound of the film. “Sound Design” (16:05) has sound designer Ren Klyce talking at length about creating the ambient sounds for the film, doing as important of a job as the visual team in recreating New Orleans. There’s a good amount of time dedicated to tweaking the voices in the film and providing alterations to both Pitt and Blanchett’s voices, allowing both of them to play their respective characters throughout the film—even in their childhoods, when they are not the actors portraying the characters. While sound design may not be as flashy or wondrous for some as the visual effects it is no less important, this short makes the audience understand that very much. “Desplat’s Insanitarium” (14:52) is all about composer Alexandre Desplat’s efforts to create the perfect score for the film and features interviews with Desplat, who has a lot to say about his approach to scoring. We see clips of him both at the conductor’s stand and at the mixing table, putting the musical pieces together along with Fincher. Desplat is, the way this piece portrays him, as much of a musical auteur as Fincher is a film auteur, and it’s easy to see why their styles meshed so well.

Birth: The final of the four sections has only two elements to it. The first is “Premiere” (4:21) covers, not surprisingly, the film’s New Orleans premiere screening, and has interviews with several members of the cast and crew talking about their reflections on the film and process of making it and then moves onto a speech by Fincher to the screening audience just before the film began; he even delivers a good line joking about the length by saying “go to the bathroom now.” “Production Stills” features over 100 behind the scenes shots of the cast and crew at work.

Trailers: (4:37) Both trailers for the film are included here, the first just under two minutes and providing more of a teaser with brief clips while the second one is two minutes and forty-five seconds, providing a somewhat more detailed look at the plot. They were quite excellently-done and show a good look at how to do a trailer right.

Special Features Rating: 10.0

The 411: Is it too early for the Criterion Collection to take The Curious Case of Benjamin Button underneath its exclusive wing? Perhaps; certainly there were better films to come out in the last years. That list is very few and far-between however, and the question of it's selection by Criterion is a debate for another time. Either way there is no denying that the movie stands out among the best of 2008, featuring a classic story, great performances by the entire cast, incredible special effects and great direction from David Fincher. The audio and video transfer add in with the incredible set of special features to make a near-perfect DVD set. The film is also available in a one-disc DVD version, but this is most certainly worth the extra money, particularly for those who are already fans of the film, and is truly one of the must-have DVD's of the year to date.

Final Score:  10.0   [ Virtually Perfect ]