Posted on 12/29/2008 5:43:08 PM PST by Publius804
DHP Review: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Nearly two and a half hours pass before The Curious Case of Benjamin Button hits you with any real warmth or poignancy and that’s an awfully long row to hoe in order to finally feel the way the lush trailer promised. The real failure of the film isn’t due to its frustrating lack of a central story and emotional through-line, or even two very unappealing love interests. It fails because wistful isn’t a theme, and other than a series of episodes under the impression they’re more important than they really are, Benjamin Button simply isn’t about anything.
Benjamin (Brad Pitt) is born the size of a baby but the rest of him is an old man in his eighties riddled with arthritis, cataracts and wrinkled skin. His mother dies during child birth leaving his father emotionally devastated and in no condition to deal with his seemingly deformed son. He leaves the baby at the doorstep of an old folks home run by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) who, under the belief the child will die soon, takes little Benjamin under her protective wing. Benjamin doesn’t die, though. Instead he grows younger and younger with each passing year.
Benjamin’s mind is still that of a child’s, so he learns to read and write like any toddler must. And while he’s smallish like a child, in every other respect he’s an old man in need of eyeglasses and a wheelchair. Eventually, over the years as he grows younger, he will grow into the fine physical specimen we call Brad Pitt.
(Excerpt) Read more at dirtyharrysplace.com ...
I’d read the Fitzgerald short story this movie is based on earlier this year. When I first heard about this film adaptation, my immediate reaction was “there just isn’t enough there to support a whole film.”
From this review, it looks like I was right.
I’m sure it will be up for many academy awards because the voters believe the movie had lots of “nuance”.
It won’t win the academy awards because the fix is already in for Sean Penn in “Milk”.
Button reminds me of the classic TV show Twilight Zone’s one-hour episodes in its later years - the story lines often would have been fine as 30 minute episodes, but as hour-long ones were too drawn out.
Is this the one where Tom Cruise, playing a Sciento logist tries to assassinate Hitler?
No, that’s Valkyrie, although I have no clue about the religious affiliations of Tom Cruise’s character (although I believe Scientology didn’t even exist until well after WWII).
If you read the first two paragraphs of the review, you could see that this is the one where Brad Pitt plays a person who is born old and ages backwards.
Have you seen “Burn Before Reading”? Brad Pitt does a pretty good job in this movie of making you forget he’s Brad Pitt.
I can confirm that - you start thinking he's Angelina Jolie!
I love Coen brothers movies and I am tempted to rent it.......did you like the film?
I did
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