The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher!)

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I am burdened with glorious purpose
Had a discussion with all my 8th grade (13 year olds) students, and we talked about the December films coming out. They are super charged about this movie! Color me rather shocked.

Maybe it's the title, all the ads, the quirky concept (it sure isn't Brad and Cate-- they don't even know Cate), but they're rather interested. Many want to go see it.

The other one with big buzz in this age group is Bedtime Stories.



Yep, I loved it, here's my review of it from my review thread:

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (David Fincher, 2008)



Synopsis
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is new different time travel movie. It starts off with a woman in a hospital dying, with her daughter there with her to keep her company. But then her mom decides to give her a journal to read while there, so then she begins to read the journal of Benjamin Button. The journal starts off with a women dying and a young boy being born, but this boy is different, he looks like an old man in his 80’s. But soon they find out that he really is different, and instead of aging, he’s only getting younger as time goes on. Benjamin Button has a complicated life, living with his adoptive parents in a retirement home, but there he fits right in. Most people there think he really is as old as he looks, but a few know that he is aging backwards. But he must leave as he gets younger, and he takes a journey through life. He always tries to be with his one true love, Daisy, who he first met when she was only a young child. Daisy doesn’t seem to want to be with him in the first part of his life though, she eventually comes around though, but at that point he’s getting much younger, and sooner or later he’s just become as young as he can get. Brad Pitt stars in the lead of this, along with Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, and Jason Flemyng all star along with him in Benjamin Button.

Characters/Acting
The acting in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button was great, I’m not sure if it could’ve been really any better. Brad Pitt really got into the role of Benjamin Button, his character was the most interesting out of the characters, but that’s already sort of expected seeing as the whole movie is focused around him. You could tell Pitt really prepared for this role, and I’d be surprised at if he at least didn’t get nominated for ‘Best Actor’ at this years academy awards. Cate Blanchett was also pretty good in this, I didn’t really seem to like her character as much though, I mean she did a good job at acting in the movie; her character wasn’t the best though. Taraji P. Henson seemed to get into her character as well, like Pitt did for his role as Benjamin Button. Her character seemed to have some really sad moments, which she seemed to have done a good job in. Jason Flemyng really wasn’t in that much of the movie, but I didn’t like his character at first, I’m pretty sure he really wasn’t meant to be that likeable at the beginning though. His character got more likeable towards the end of the movie though, he just seemed to get nicer towards the ending. Jared Harris did a great job IMO; he did the second best performance in the movie after Pitt. His character was the most interesting out of all of them besides Pitt, but he was my favorite character in the whole movie, I was actually surprised at how much screen time he got, I’m glad he got all the screen time he got, he definitely deserved it.

Plot
The story for Benjamin Button was the best part in the entire movie; it’s the main thing that made this movie so great. This movie had such amazing story telling, that was the main thing this movie had going for it. I think that even if you didn’t like the movie, you can’t deny that this movie had amazing story telling. The main reason that this didn’t quite get a perfect score from me was the length; I think most of everything in there, for the most part, was needed, but there were some scenes that could’ve been cut and released once on DVD or something. The length really isn’t that bad though, because I’ve seen some long movies that are hard to sit through, and this really isn’t as bad as them. Now I’ve never read the short story, but I’m actually amazed that Fincher could turn a short story into a 3 hour long movie, I’m sure I’ve got to read the short story, but I guess there was a way. I didn’t really like the ending as much though; I thought the beginning of Benjamin Button was much better than the ending.



My Thoughts On It
Overall, I thought it was great, but it didn’t quite meet my expectations that the hype was suggesting. Now I don’t quite agree with people saying that this was David Fincher’s best film, I don’t think it was. It was a little better than Zodiac, but no quite as good as Fight Club or Se7en. Some of the stuff in this movie really reminded me of Forrest Gump, not the whole movie, but there were some scenes that really reminded me of Forrest Gump. This was the second best movie of 2008 for me, as long as I don’t see something in the next week or two that changes that, I don’t think something will, maybe Gran Torino. And when I eventually get around to finishing my top 100, which is actually becoming really soon, that this will make it pretty high on my favorites list. Maybe in my top 30 or maybe somewhere in my top 20. I think it’s going to end up somewhere between 20 and 30 though. But if you’re trying to pick a movie to see in theaters this weekend, or sometime soon, I’d definitely suggest seeing this one, because I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.




Royale With Cheese
hope it is as good as finchers other masterpeices, judging from the reviews it is!!!



Standing in the Sunlight, Laughing
I thought this was ok. You pretty much get the story from the trailers, so if you're looking for any surprises, you'll be in the wrong theater. The performances and special effects and general art of the film are all gorgeous. It's entertaining. It just seemed to want to be this year's Forrest Gump, and it didn't get there for me in terms of emotional impact.
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Let's try to be broad-minded about this
i agree with Samsonite, i wasn't wowed by anything and i haven't even seen Forrest Gump (i know...don't kill me) it was a good movie, exactly what i expected but nothing beyond expectations. Things that follow a whole person's life over long periods of time like this seem so broad and impersonal to me. I wasn't incredibly emotionally attached or anything. Also i thought the Katrina thing was a bit much, everytime it cut to the hospital scenes i'd groan



amazing movie. really long though, but amazing haha



Haunted Heart, Beautiful Dead Soul
amazing concept, even more amazing makeup techs (shows a viewer how far makeup has came since The Planet of The Apes) i look forward to this being released on dvd hopefully for a special edition extra on the makeup and the effects they used.

i went with a non- film buff and she said she liked the movie but it was too long. i wanted to say how could you have shortened that movie? as for the gump comparisons, maybe pitt would get an oscar for this as should blanchett.



Yes it was long but it was well worth it- I wouldn't want to cut anything out either. I thought it was great with incredible performances by Pitt, Blanchett and Henson.

It's in the running for Best Picture but there are many discussion about it only having a score of 72% on Rottentomatoes- one of the lowest ratings for any best picture nominee.



I am burdened with glorious purpose
I did a search and didn't find any reviews of this film here?

What a curiously empty film this was. My son bought it for me for Mother's Day since he had seen it and thought I would love it.

I would have loved a film like this -- epic in tone covering a long period of time; the mixing of fantasy and reality (my favorite kind of book), but I was blown away at how bad I thought this film was. In nearly every way except the look of it.

First of all, there is no payoff whatsoever about the clock's passage of time backward and that connection to Button's life. The clock's story was the most interesting of all -- the idea that we can go backward and all of life's miseries and tragedies haven't happened yet. We all want to go back in time at some point... but how is Button's aging backward even remotely tied in with this theme?

At the end of the film, I felt nothing. Nothing. I didn't care that he died nor did I even care about his daughter or Blanchett's character in the hospital. It's like they were trying to create this great tragedy here. When we journey through a person's life we're supposed to come out wiser in the end, attached emotionally, and fulfilled at having experienced it all. I felt none of that.

Not sure what others here thought of this film. I also think this is one of those cases where a film has a certain "pedigree" and gets awards nominations it doesn't deserve. Thank goodness, nobody won (or did it win a technical award? if it did, that was the best part).



I thought the film was a shiny, hollow object. Technically impressive, but it made almost no real impact whatsoever.
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I thought it was an amazing idea for a film but I felt that there was alot taken from another award winning film that doesn't make it so original. I felt like I was watching Forrest Gump a bit. Was entertaining none the less though
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I have a subscription to Netflix, and I received two movies in the mail. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and 3:10 to Yuma. I didn't get a chance to watch, 3:10 to Yuma, and I already knew it was a western, but I did watch "Benjamin". What a great movie, with a interesting twist and fate, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchette. Brad play's a man who at birth, was born with some kind of aging desease. He looks like he's about 75-80 years old when he's born, except the crazy thing is, he gets younger as he gets older, if that makes any sense. Anyway, go rent it.....it's a great movie.



I agree with Roger Ebert on this one.

""The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a splendidly made film based on a profoundly mistaken premise. It tells the story of a man who is old when he is born and an infant when he dies. All those around him, everyone he knows and loves, grow older in the usual way, and he passes them on the way down. As I watched the film, I became consumed by a conviction that this was simply wrong."



A system of cells interlinked
Cool - care to explain WHY it's just "wrong"?

Also - a thread already exists for this movie - merging posts to existing thread.
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Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
I watched the movie and I found a lot of it to be very interesting, but I feel that they try to make Benjamin's problem out to be a lot worse than it is.

WARNING: "SPOILERS" spoilers below
So when he is young he looks old and he gets to hook up with a good share of older woman, and when he is old he looks young and he gets to hook up with a good share of young women. Either way he's pretty much James Bond, whether an old Bond or a young Bond, and it seems like this isn't really a curse at all.

And then he chooses to leave his wife and kid, because he has a kid in his early 40s and chooses to leave them because he is worried that in about 20 years or so, that his brain will start to deteriorate and he won't be a good father. Lots of guys have kids in their early 40s even though there is a chance that in 20 plus years, their brains will start deteriorating.
They don't leave their families on the chance that will happen later.

So I feel that they really made this issue out to be bigger than it actually is to build a movie around. Perhaps the story would have been better if he and his main love interest had spent the whole movie together, but he goes away for a long time, twice, and they don't actually get together till they are both middle aged.

He is just pretty much an old James Bond before, that, and I found that the WWII battle subplot, didn't add anything to the rest of the story really and was just put their for random historical flair.


But I do think that the final 10 minutes about, are heartbreaking in it's own way, and I do give it credit for ending on that note. But maybe I am wrong or am missing something?



But maybe I am wrong or am missing something?
It's definitely not an easy watch for a mass audience despite Pitt's presence. It speaks a lot I think about uncomfortable truths about human nature and death. There are definitely parallels to Forrest Gump but I've always liked it so that didn't bother me. I remember also seeing this when it came out and Not caring much for it at all despite being a Fincher fan but I got more out of it this time.



It's easily the weakest Fincher film for me (I haven't seen Mank, though), but it's still pretty good. You can feel that Fincher was aiming for a bit of Oscar-baity melodrama, but it still has some good/great performances, great direction, and a haunting last act.
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