Posted on 12/25/2008 7:20:26 AM PST by AJKauf
Hollywood films rarely even attempt the sweep and heartbreak of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a bewitching, at times overpowering movie that seems likely to win about 50 Oscars. There aren’t actually that many Oscars to hand out, but I wouldn’t put it past the Academy to invent some new categories.
Based on but greatly expanded from an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, the film by Fight Club director David Fincher proves that this gifted director can deploy all of his visual gifts to create a richly satisfying, emotionally engaging, and more than a bit schmaltzy old-time romance with heavy assistance from digital and makeup technology: as the title character, Brad Pitt is born as a feeble old man of about 80 and spends the entire film aging in reverse.
From the outset, the script by Forrest Gump screenwriter Eric Roth makes it ambitions clear...
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
People and critics are all over the place about this movie.
I’ve heard GREAT reviews and TERRIBLE reviews.
As usual, I will probably be somewhere in the middle.
Australia is pretty but awful, BTW. It is a chick flick trying to disguise its self as a rough and tough western. My husband who wouldn't go to a chick flick if I tried to drag his still warm corpse in the theater, is still complaining how awful and lovey dovey kissy kissy it is.
I had no desire to this film when I first heard of it (it seemed like a chick flick) but after I saw the commercials I can’t wait to see it.
Tell me how you feel about Australia.
Looking forward to seeing this. This movie seems to polarize critics which makes me curious.
Going to definitely see this one. It looks awesome.
I would skip the next Batman sequel if Brad Pitt was in it.
He is on my ‘DO NOT PAY TO SEE’ list.
I understand the general feeling, many years ago I forced my then boyfriend-now Husband to see the chick-flick-costume drama: Emma, which I adored but he throughly hated./Just Asking - seoul62......
This flick "updates" the tale by inserting Hurricane Katrina;
and worse, the Hollywood writers fabricated a "kindly African-American" character who serves as this flick's Magic Negro.
Here's a reply I posted on another thread...
[quote from review]...a kindly African-American worker at the home, Queenie (in a marvelous performance by Taraji P. Henson), embraces Benjamin as one of God’s children — even as she observes that Lord has done something very “strange” in this case — and adopts him.This kindly "African-American" is an invention of Pitt's also (in addition to the Hurricane Katrina storyline). She is not F. Scott Fitzgerald's character, at least.
I just read the first five chapters of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button --full text free online-- and there is NO "Queenie" anywhere in those chapters. Nor does Fitzgerald call anyone an "African-American" (now there's an anachronism).
Looks to me like another case of "The Magic Negro" as described by leftist LA Times writer David Ehrenstein. AKA The Numinous Negro, as identified by Rick Brookhiser of NRO earlier.
Does Hollywood make any movies anymore that don't have a "Magic Negro" in the storyline?
I don't know about other FReepers, but when screenwriters turn a story upside down to make it pc (the wretched movie version of Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities" for example), it makes it un-watchable for me!
Forrest Gump was one of the dumbest movies I ever saw so, whatever.....this looks dumb, too.
The delivery scene must be a hoot.
Really? I liked a comment he made “Don’t ask me for my opinion on politics, I’m a grown man who wears make-up and plays pretend.”
Sly and the Family Stone?
If he really said that then at least he knows his place.
He engages in false modesty and also makes political statements. Nothing like having it both ways. What a pretentious twit.
But it means that he knows exactly how long he is going to live right?
Rachel McAdams totally steals the scene(s) from SJP however.
The soundtrack has rave reviews (see yesterday’s WSJ.)
I could sit thru the Gump movie for years - way too (dunno how to describe the level of nausea) about RVN scenes.
Finally watched it all the way through a couple of years ago. It earned all the awards.
Some movies just take longer to get, I suppose.
Gotta love the Lt Dan character....
Synopsis of Forest Gump.
Intelegent people who care about nothing but themselves live lives of chaos and misery.
A simple man who lives his life for others overcomes obstacles and finds meaning in life.
It is a hard movie to sit through and the message isn’t obvious but in it’s own way it pokes a finger in the eye of hedonistic Hollywood and liberals in general.
Sacrifices are personal in nature and the rewards come from individual choices.
is my world class crush on 
Yet even my major league heart throb for oh so sexy Cate did not save 2006's Babel from being a stinker where she also played Brad Pitt's main squeeze who get shot through the driver side window of a bus when the shooter was on the passenger side of the bus about a mile or so away in the distance.
I am prepared to suspend my belief for a film, but I gag big time when the basic laws of physics are broken in the film's first ten minutes and Babel was not even a campy horror, fantasy or sci-fi flick.
Since I do not know this Kyle Smith, film critic for the the New York Post, I checked out some of his previous reviews at http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/author/kylesmith/
Frost/Nixon Is a Revelation - "Hummmmmmmmm"
Slumdog Millionaire: Best Film of the Year - "Say what?"
Dirty Harry Makes Anti-Cop Movie - "Hummmmmmmmm #2"
W. Is an Insult to 62 Million Voters - "Totally agree!"
Body of Lies: Unabashedly Unpatriotic - "Two I agree with in a row!"
Is The Rocker a Crowd Pleaser? - "Never heard of this flick nor care"
Star Wars: The Clone Wars — A Big Pile of Dooku - "Three agreements"
Tropic Thunder Not Your Typical Vietnam Flick - "Gave new meaning to ‘you people’ in the spin up to nObamanation"
Swing Vote: An Election-Themed ‘Comedy’ - "Only if you have no sense of humor to begin with"
Okay, I'll see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button... 
if it shows here in Corsicana where the ticket is only $2.25 before 6PM.
I’ll pass this on to Barb, she was having a conversation with her girlfriend in Portland about “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
Usually when that is the case the movie is not in the middle. It becomes one of those where people either love it or hate it.
Great flick! *hhhhgggggggggghhhhhhh!*
I like to watch it with a cold Lucky Lager.
But, I did enjoy the movie despite all that. The original short story it's based on is a toss-away fluff piece. I have to admit that Eric Roth did well with the long version, despite the liberal P.C. stuff thrown in. Don't agree with it, but it's entertaining and makes you think about mortality.
My wife took me to see it yesterday. It is not great, but it is better than most of its competition right now.
What P.C. stuff and anti-war references? The movie ends before Katrina hardly begins. The location of New Orleans was chosen because it has a ‘worn’ ‘broken but unbowed’ feel like the title character. If you think making changes to the source material is PC than that means just about every adaptation ever made.
I have to second that question. I didn't notice any anti-war references. In fact when the tugboat got "drafted" into WWII it seemed downright patriotic. *shrug*
The only scene that could even be taken (completely out of context) as anti-war, was the clock unveiling. However, the clock was made by a man who'd lost his son in "The Great War." It was not so much anti-war as it was a broken-hearted man's way of remembering his son.
Honestly, who wouldn't wish a normal life for their (adult) children?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.