The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

There are no rules to it, you can either make the best of it or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it – part of a Benjamin Button philosophy about life, which perhaps works to describe the movie as well.

If you’ve read any of my past reviews, you might assume I made the best of it, and you’d be right. It’s story driven, a combination of magic, mystery, pathos, life’s musings, sentiment and romance – these are a few of my favorite things!

The coloring of the film is beautiful and fits so well with the film’s almost storybook quality;a lot of warm, yet sad golds and greens and shades of tea stains. I also noted there are absolutely no credits run until the end of the movie.

Director-David Fincher (Fight Club, The Game, Panic Room, Alien 3)

As expected, the make-up and CGI are on the mark. Brad Pitt found a believable tone playing a wizened, childlike, young, old man. Then we are treated to the sexy, devoted-to-one-woman, Pitt that defines his off screen life, but so rarely is seen on screen, as he likes to remove all traces of sex appeal playing weird characters like Chad Feldheimer in Burn After Reading.

I do believe Cate Blanchett may one day surpass Meryl Streep as reigning actress supreme. Her effortless ability to be anyone and yet ever captivating is a gift.

My first thought while watching the film, was feeling a similarity to Forrest Gump. After googling the screenwriter, Eric Roth, turns out there’s a good reason for this comparison, as he wrote both movies. The tones, however, are quite different. Forrest Gump had tongue-in-cheek humor. Whereas, the intermittent tales of one old man being hit by lightening and the ancient grainy flashback accompaniment of the telling, is the only humor to be found in Benjamin Button. It may not sound like a light moment, but it’s really quite absurdly funny!

I love the beginning bit about the blind clock-maker, designing a backward clock for the rail station, in honor of his son and other fallen soldiers of World War I. His hope being that time could be reversed and these men could return to live the lives they never got to live. What I didn’t like was the present time reading of Benjamin’s journal, as Hurricane Katrina rushes in. Although, I’d have to give some more thought as to how the story should have been revealed to us.

At any rate, I have some books due back at the Library on Monday, I think while I’m there, I’ll pick up a compilation of F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories.

Rating: Pretty Index Toe