Curious Indeed

I wish the name of the film were just, Benjamin Button. Then, I could call this post, The curious case of Benjamin Button. But, as it is...I'm left with, The curious case of the Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. Hmph!

Last night, I snuggled into my favorite chair. I had a fire in the fireplace on a chilly, rainy Los Angeles evening. I resigned myself to the almost three hour running time of the film.  Ready and willing for whatever was to come. What I discovered is The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, is yet another beautifully flawed movie. One that just couldn't seem to hold itself together long enough to achieve greatness...but oh, it tried hard and came, oh so close.

It was impossible not to be reminded of Forrest Gump. The screenplay was written by Robin Swicord and Eric Roth. Roth also penned Gump, and I couldn't help but wish I could've read Swicord's version before Roth was brought to the project by virtue of his great expertise. My experience in Hollywood has been that, in many cases, the heavy hitters they bring in to revise pages during production, have a tendency to screw things up more then they help. In the case of Benjamin Button...every time someone said "You never know what's coming for you," it sounded so Gumpy that it had the adverse effect of taking me right out of the moment.  All I could see was that damn box of chocolates. 

When Benjamin gets his first job, ahem... on a boat, he develops the same blind loyalty to "Captain Mike", as Forrest did to "Lt.Dan".  It's too bad that Captain Mike is a far less interesting and less lovable creation then my beloved, Lt.Dan.  Not the actor's fault, he was good. He seemed to be doing his job. But, somehow, he was just too generic.  I couldn't pick him out in a line up to save my life, and I'm quite sure I won't be quoting him in ten years. 

 I've also been "sharking" with Hooper, Quint and Sheriff Brody, so, don't be giving me any boring ass boat sequence.  The boat in Button, is a tugboat.  And it failed me. In fact, the whole boating adventure just left me hoping it would sink.  When it finally did, I was far less sympathetic then I should have been.

I don't particularly love Forrest Gump.  And Button has far fewer occasions for eye-rolling.  Where watching Gump is an exercise in wondering when the kitchen sink will appear, Button was far more patient, and purposeful.  It's just that, I would rather not have had the same writer going over some of the same ground.  There are so many things about Button that are new...and amazing...it's a shame to have that taint, you know?

This is not Fitzgerald's story either.  The original Benjamin Button had the mind of a man, at birth and the mind of an infant, at death.  It is a simple and fascinating fable.  His mind running backwards as well as his body.  In the film...his mind is properly oriented...but, his body is aging in reverse.  It brings up an entirely different set of questions.  

The photography is beautiful.  The special effects are pretty cool.  Brad Pitt is fine. Taraji P. Henson is cute.  Cate Blanchett is lovely, as always, and could have had another Supporting Oscar nomination under her belt if she had been campaigned in Supporting.  Why wasn't she?  I liked all the old folks, and the old folks home, and the stories that came out of the old folks home, and New Orleans....was a star.  

I hated the boat, and I hated the plot device that turns the story in the third act. I hated that there was a music montage. I wasn't fond of the Katrina era scenes in the hospital between Cate Blanchett and Julia Ormond.  Although excited at first to see Ormond, I soon found myself wishing she'd go away again.  Why did they choose to tell the story this way?  (She's reading his diary.)  Was it a way to justify the voice-over?  Is that the best you could do?

What I loved...was Tilda Swinton.  She is perfect.  Her scenes with Pitt are perfect, and interesting, and melancholy, and passionate, sublime and I wanted to be her so badly!  What's really curious is, that she isn't the one with the Oscar nomination.  It is one of the best pieces of acting I've seen all year.   

I cried....more then once.  It made me think. It made me think about love, about loving people, and how we love, and how we are destined to lose those we love, and how we have to be brave enough to love them anyway.  

The movie is certainly worth a look. There is a lot of gold here.  Give yourself over, and don't spend too much time doing the math.  That's my advice.