The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Review [2]

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 12.28.2008

Does the tale of a man who lives life in reverse live up to the hype?

Directed by David Fincher
Written by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Cinematography by Claudio Miranda
Music Score by Alexandre Desplat

Cast
Brad Pitt ... Benjamin Button
Cate Blanchett ... Daisy
Julia Ormond ... Caroline
Taraji P. Henson ... Queenie
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali ... Tizzy
Jason Flemyng ... Thomas Button
Rampai Mohadi ... Ngunda Oti
Jared Harris ... Captain Mike
Tilda Swinton ... Elizabeth Abbott



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

It is almost a cliché for an old man to ask wistfully what he would have done at the age of twenty with the knowledge he now has. If you could go back 5, 10, 20 years ago and change something in your life based on the lessons you’ve learned since, what would you do differently? The Curious Case of Benjamin Button takes this idea and reminiscences on the ideals of living your life backwards, starting as an old man and growing through your life into a child.

The movie opens with a brilliantly shot montage describing a blind clockmaker, Monsieur Gateau (Elias Koteas), whose son died in World War I. The clockmaker presented a clock he built for a train station to a large conglomerate, including Theodore Roosevelt, and all were shocked when they discovered the clock ran backward. The clockmaker explained the clock was made this way on purpose so that people could share the thought that it might be better for time to run backward so all their children who died in the war could return home safely instead of in boxes. This entire montage is shot in a classic style that brings to mind the silent era. It is also told with the mannerisms of a fairy tale. The old clockmaker would never be seen from again, rumored to have gone off to sea. It is a brilliant start to a movie that is a beauty to behold.

Benjamin is born on the eve of the end of World War I. His mother dies during childbirth and once his father lays eyes on the baby he is horrified. Benjamin is a wrinkled and withered, living, breathing mutant. He is a baby with all the ailments of an 80 year old man. His father immediately abandons Benjamin on the steps of a retirement home and runs away.

Benjamin is raised in the retirement home, given his name and all the love he would ever need by his new mother Queenie (Taraji P. Hensen) and the elderly residents of the home. In this setting, he is able to grow into a man around the same type of people inflicted with the same bodily dysfunctions he suffers from. Even though he ages backward, he is still a child, though he bonds better with the elderly than anyone his own age group. The only child he comes in contact with is a young girl named Daisy (Elle Fanning) and while the two develop a quick friendship, it is squashed because those who see Benjamin believe him to be an elderly man. Regardless, the backbone of this story is the developing relationship between Benjamin and Daisy as she grows older while he becomes younger each and every day.

Most of the story is told in voice over as the film is bookended by the story of a woman (Julia Ormond) reading the life history of Benjamin Button through Benjamin’s own journal. The journal is now in the property of the woman’s mother, Daisy (Cate Blanchett), now an old woman at the end of her life. I understand the purpose of this portion of the film is to tie the story together through the relationship between Daisy and her daughter and the discovery of who they really are. The problem with these scenes is they interrupt the story. They are used as transitions to the passage of time, but the beauty of the scenes of New Orleans and New York City in the years past is so great, the present day seems pale in comparison. Daisy and her daughter are in a hospital during what television newscasts refers to as the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina. While the wild storm rages in the background, it is the strange story of Benjamin Button we really want to hear.

If this film does not win every technical achievement award at the Oscars, something is wrong with the system. Director David Fincher lovingly recreates the scenes from New Orleans from 1916 through present day in distinct detail. It is the magnificent portrait of life during these times that proves Fincher is still growing as an auteur. The makeup work, from the elderly baby through the de-aging process, could have been a huge disappointment but was done with a deft touch that proves a triumph in the makeup and CG world the characters reside in. If you only look at the technical achievements on display, this movie is a masterpiece.

Brad Pitt does an admirable job in the thankless role of Benjamin Button. He provides the character with enough humanization to make you truly care about Benjamin but is kept at arm’s length when it comes to delivering any type of real emotion of despair. Benjamin is a passive character in this story. There is very little he does to make him an active participant in his own life and that could cripple a lesser movie. There are only a small number of times he makes a strong active decision. One of these is when he turns away Daisy as she makes sexual advances towards him while the two are in their 20th years of their lives. With her at the age of 23 and him physically closer to 60 it was a sweet and poignant decision on his part. Later, when they are closer to the same age (43 and 49), he does not reject her advances proving he was wiser about when to accept her into his arms then instead of when she was at the younger, more foolish age.

However, the rest of the movie shows Benjamin as a spectator who simply goes where the winds take him. His story parallels that of Forrest Gump, but without the schmaltzy sap that Gump possesses. While the spectacle of Forrest Gump includes him meeting various famous figures in time, Benjamin lives his simple life as he passes through the various stages of the world’s development. Benjamin was born on the eve of the end of World War I. When he is seventeen, he sets out to live the life of a seaman, working aboard a tugboat. This is not so much a conscious decision as just a twist of fate as he was in the right place at the right time. He is a part of World War II following Pearl Harbor but, once again, this is simply his knack of following others into various situations. He makes the effort at one point to find Daisy, to “sweep her off her feet” but fails and it is only when Daisy chooses to find him that they are eventually united. Even the one major affair in his life, with a wealthy wife of a spy, is simply something he fell into.

The only time he did something that can be considered proactive he betrays his own character’s trait. When a person is growing younger and watches their child growing older, it can cause fear and, while Benjamin explains his honest belief that what he is doing is right, it seems to be the worst thing he could do at the time. Even looking back and seeing he might have been right in this important decision, it still seems selfish as he continues his life free from the responsibilities he should be bearing. It is the one time in the movie I found myself not on the side of Benjamin Button.

I found myself strongly disliking the character of Daisy throughout the movie. I don’t know if it was Cate Blanchett’s portrayal of the character or the way Daisy was written but I never felt she deserved someone as good and pure as Benjamin Button. She is sweet and charming as a child but once she matures and leaves to become a dancer in New York City, she grows into an insufferable bore. She speaks at length about her life as a dancer and the promiscuity and advances of lesbians upon her. She propositions Benjamin, speaking of being with older men before, and it is not romantic, instead vacant of any true emotion. It is only at the end of the film, when she appears to pay her penance for the sins of her past, that she redeems herself. If there is one let down about the character of Benjamin Button, it is his willingness to wait for this impetuous woman. He deserves better.

Speaking of better, one of the best performances in the film is that of Tilda Swinton. She is only onscreen for a short time as Benjamin’s lover but did more with her character than Cate Blanchett achieved the entire film. Her character’s rules are simple. They would only meet at night, would never make eye contact during the day and would never say they love each other. Despite these rules, and her abrupt departure, she seems more honest to Benjamin than Daisy is the entire film. Cate Blanchett may be the co-star of the film, but supporting actress Swinton trumped her every step of the way.

As great as Swinton was, the real star of the movie was Taraji P. Hensen as Benjamin’s adoptive mother Queenie, the only woman who ever really deserves his love. In her small role she carries the movie to heights it would never have reached otherwise. She is the true heart and soul behind Benjamin’s story and without her it would never have carried the emotional weight it reached. If anyone deserves an award nomination from this film, it is Hensen.

The story preaches the belief of fate. There is a line of dialogue that states our lives are predetermined and you go where fate takes you. I think the film’s biggest misstep, and the only scene I absolutely hated, is one that slammed this idea over my head like a mallet. The scene shamelessly rips off the opening of P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia and the voice over doesn’t help elevate the familiarity of that scene’s structure. In the voice over, Benjamin describes an accident that could have been prevented if only one of a large number of incidents had occurred differently. It might be my hatred of this scene comes from my love for Magnolia, but that scene just seems like a dime store rip off of a much better one. The audience in the theater I was in groaned at this analogy when it played out, so I may not be alone in believing this scene choice was a mistake.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a curious movie indeed. It tells the story of one man and his strange journey though life, very similar to Forrest Gump, which is not a surprise since they both were written by the same man, Eric Roth. But Forrest Gump takes you in a very schmaltzy direction story-wise and the entire charm lies in the gimmick of Gump passing through history. Benjamin Button, while straying from the original source material, is a very poignant story of a man’s tragic life as he passes through history and watches as the world around him ages and dies while he only grows more youthful. There are areas that could have been milked for some very interesting philosophical ideas, but Benjamin Button wisely focuses on the man’s relationship with his life’s one true love and, because of that, it retains a focus that makes it a beautiful story of a tragic unrequited love.

The 411: David Fincher continues his impressive work following Zodiac and creates a movie here that is magnificent in its scope and looks absolutely beautiful. He gets solid turns from his cast, especially from the supporting actors, and creates a tragic love story that balances the beautiful look of the film with a more personal touch missing from many of Fincher’s films. He continues to grow as a director and amazes me as Benjamin Button proves that he just might now be entering his prime. It’s a movie I would highly recommend and one that works on so many levels that you won’t leave the theater without thinking long and hard about the ideals it presents. That alone makes it a great success in my eyes.

Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]