Summary“I was born under unusual circumstances.” And so begins The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. We follow his story, set in New Orleans from the end of World War I in 1918, into t...
Summary“I was born under unusual circumstances.” And so begins The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. We follow his story, set in New Orleans from the end of World War I in 1918, into t...
Aptly for a film so concerned with time, Button is 13 minutes shy of three hours and just flies by. If this is Fincher selling out, can he sell out more often please?
For those of you that haven't seen it: "SEE IT". Besides a great story (with one flaw), this film makes illusion and simulation become **** one flaw: I have great respect for David Fincher, and I am going to go out on a limb and say that he must have been aware of this discrepancy, but went ahead with the story-line as written anyway. ( I hope that's the case). Benjamin Button was born "old", and regressed backwards to die an infant. The flaw in the story-line (and it's a big one), is that as he regresses to youth, he begins to have dementia (Alzheimer's symptoms), along with all of the arthritic pains and problems an old man gets as he ages. At the end, before he dies he loses his memory completely.Logically, since he was born an old man, those illnesses should have evolved from birth, and improved as he regressed in age. Strangely in the film, he is born with severe arthritis, and can't even walk until he is 7. Why then would he again experience these same symptoms as a child on the way to his death bed (or crib)? He should be in perfect health as a child, and regress to a "fetus", and then disappear.Other than that major flaw, this movie is a 10. Unfortunately because of the illogical way he dies, I had to give it a 9 out of 10 **** other issue with the plot: If we were to take this movie scenario and try to place it in the real world, Benjamin would have to have been born a "full sized", old man, and then after 70 or 80 years, he would have begun to shrink. Since the idea of a woman giving birth to a full sized man is physically impossible, our Benjamin had to be born old and "tiny". This of course is another contradiction in the plot, since Benjamin is small "twice in his life". We can't dwell on this flaw at all, because if we did we would never get passed it. To enjoy this movie, we must put all the facts and logistics of this scenario aside, and when we do, this movie takes us on a journey unlike any other ever filmed.
Perhaps the movie might have made more sense if the actors could have taken each other's roles: Pitt always seems light and ageless, while Blanchett never seems to have been young.
At its most profound, Benjamin Button isn't about anything more important than Pitt's very handsomeness, which, for a surprising stretch of time, is a wonderful subject for study.
Often astonishingly beautiful, but in a way that's the problem: You wonder what visionaries such as Tim Burton or Michel Gondry might have done with the material. As it is, "Benjamin Button" is little more than "Gump" by way of "Dorian Gray." It plays too safe when it should be letting its freak flag fly.
Perfect just perfect,literally greatest movie ever made,just made me curious on how just how great it was everything was just unbelievable and great!sure a definite classic with awesome score and screenplay and performances!david fincher is a legend!
Benjamin Button told an unbelievable story with acting that was superb but what was lacking was something to be felt after its over two and half hour length. The movie passed all measures with story, acting, score and scenery but never pushed the limits to make it excellent.
First of all, I don't think the realist elements have done good to this movie. I mean, if the protagonist is meant to be fantastic why is it necessary for us to know when he was born, where is he going, what (real) wars he fought? Superman is like this movie's protagonist, he defies natural laws, like gravity for example. Benjamin Button is doing the same thing with biological laws when he rejuvenates, but despite the realistic context where he is placed, no-one seems to be so affected by his unusual nature (and that makes realistic characters behave artificially). Just pay some attention to the title: The curious case..., why case? "Cases" exist only in reality. If the movie would have dwelled in the fantastic, fictional, or whatever you call it domain of the narrative it certainly had been better.
Secondly, and more important, my opinion is that this movie doesn't eventually say much. During the almost three hours length I questioned myself about Benjamin's nature and what philosophical facts should it reveal. But as I tried and tried to build-up my logic I couldn't reach any destination. In fact, Benjamin looked like a simple, ordinary men that lives his life from start to end. He's different from us only because his appearance evolves from old men to infant child. But he is born a child and mentally he's just like us (as he admits).
All my respect to everyone in the production crew because they made a very well-done job, from special effects to acting performances. The story is the major problem here.
This was too weird for my taste. I didn't like when near the end that shows Benjamin died. I didn't read the book and I have no interest of reading it. Personally, is not my favorite.
Benjamin Button is well directed, well lit and filled with some beautiful imagery. Almost everything else is a problem. There are several dramatic moments in the film, enough to fool an audience into thinking that something profound is happening. But when you start asking the "why's?" the entire premise breaks down and the film has no answers. The events that unfold have no purpose, other than to create an "earnest" atmosphere. The characters are portrayed in a monotonous and self-obsessed manner and Cate Blanchett, despite here far-fetched talent, turns out to be the most annoying character on screen. The aspect of Button that separates it from most nonsensical melodramas of its sort is that, at its centre it's about a man living life backwards. The most disappointing part of it is that, after watching the movie, I learnt almost nothing about it, certainly not anything I couldn't have predicted myself. Button is no more than a sappy and pretentious remake of Forrest Gump, the only difference is that it has been done backwards this time.