Monday, January 5, 2009

The Benjamin Button Post

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an interesting tale of a man who lives life backwards. Born as a geriatric baby that grows into a charming old-man of a toddler, all the way back to senile baby (with the obligatory Pitt-stop* In his hunkey midlife of course). Button brings in elements of past charmers Big Fish and Forrest Gump and mixes them into an interesting blend of outlandish fantasy and a humble life. Button’s tale recounts a magical existence being told from the end-backwards. while mimicking Gump by living through the ages experiencing everything one should do during the decades of his existence. He goes to war, he works the seas, he travels from country to country and city to city. He becomes a ping pong champion…no nevermind.

Pitt himself does a terrific job of playing the part during it’s various stages, and the supporting cast do a great job of playing their parts in Button’s life. Captain Mike and 'Lightning Geezer' where my personal favorites. Cate Blanchett did a good job of playing the equally complex counterpart to Pitt’s Button also, and evolves with his devolution with notable symmetry. The aging effects are rather remarkable but for some reason Brad Pitt looks like Yoda for the first hour or so of the movie and then turns into Val Kilmer for half an hour. Who knew?

The movie does an excellent job of highlighting the cyclical nature of life and bringing to light the childlike nature of being elderly and the senile aspects of infancy. The long length of the movie while clearly intentional works against the film more than it helps in the (very) long run. When a film is based on illustrating a mans entire existence while at the same time taking great efforts to portray said life in a manner that forces the viewer to think differently about life as a whole, its pretty much expected that it will run for the better part of three hours. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but don’t ever randomly decide to watch this Curious Case. Only commit if you have the time and emotional energy to dedicate an evening to it. That being said it is a fantastic movie and very well made, but not one that I feel I need to see again to appreciate. As with Button himself this only needs to be experienced once per lifetime.
*Sorry, had to.

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