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The Curious Case
of Benjamin Button
Movie Stats & Links |
Starring: |
Cate Blanchett,
Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton |
MPAA Rated: |
PG-13 |
Released By: |
Paramount Pictures & Warner Bros. |
Web Site: |
www.benjaminbutton.com |
Kiddie Movie: |
They'd probably
get tired and bored. |
Date Movie: |
If she's okay with
a long movie. |
Gratuitous Sex: |
There are
suggestions. Hey, Benjamin does grow up, I mean young. |
Gratuitous
Violence: |
Benjamin does go
through World War II, but nothing horrible. |
Action: |
Not really. |
Laughs: |
Quite a few
one-liners keep things light-hearted. |
Memorable
Scene: |
Brad Pitt as an
old, I mean young man. |
Memorable
Quote: |
"That's the
saddest story I ever heard." |
Directed By: |
David Fincher |
Produced By: |
Ceán Chaffin,
Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall |
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The Curious Case
of Benjamin Button
A Movie Review |
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For as long as I can remember after seeing the first trailer
for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” I couldn’t figure
out how they were going to have Brad Pitt “reverse” age. I
mean, how do you start out as an old, full-sized man, and
then end up as a little baby? The TV show “Mork &
Mindy” pulled it off because, well, they were aliens, but
the trailers showed an old man in the mirror looking sort of
like Brad Pitt, and then Brad
Pitt looking like, well, Brad Pitt. I must say that as the
movie began, it finally made sense how Benjamin would age
backwards, but then the ending just seemed wrong. Anyway,
let’s get to the story.
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” opens with Daisy (Cate
Blanchett) as an old, dying woman, in a hospital in New
Orleans, just as Hurricane Katrina is bearing down on the
gulf. Her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond) is with her, and
then Daisy has Caroline read from a diary and the story of
Benjamin Buttons begins.
We learn of Benjamin’s birth, as a grotesque, old-looking
baby, whose father leaves him on a doorstep to be raised by
others at a home for old people, where, even though he’s
kinda gross, the old people can relate. The problem is,
instead of dying, the baby begins to grow up, but as he
grows up in size and learns to speak and walk, he also
reverses in physical appearance, looking younger and younger
every day. As the story goes, Benjamin grows older as
children do, realizing he likes girls (especially Daisy, who
is too young for him because he, well, right now looks too
old), wants to see the world, seeks adventure (finding it on
a tug-boat that turns into a navy vessel, thereby giving
Benjamin a sense of purpose, love and sex, and friendship),
but always has a place in his heart for the old homestead,
and Caroline. There finally comes a time when Benjamin and
Caroline are the appropriate age, do the dirty deed, I mean
make love, have a
child amongst themselves, and life happily ever after, sort
of.
Sure, I could give away a lot of the plot elements, like
Benjamin having an affair with a lady who swims, who his
father is, and how he dies (please, don’t bitch at me about
giving away that he dies - it’s a story about the life of
Benjamin Button – of course he dies), but what fun would
that be? Actually, I so want to give away how he dies
because I really didn’t like it, but maybe I’ll wait for the
DVD review to give that away, and how I thought it was
carried out wrong.
The thing is, I really liked “The Curious Case of
Benjamin Button,” except for, well, how he died, and I’m
torn if I should let that influence my rating. You see, it’s
really a nice story and a curious take on life and growing
old, the acting in the movie is fantastic across the board,
and the effects of making Brad Pitt start as an old man and
reverse age are utterly fantastic (ladies, you will easily
remember how you fell in love with him during his “Thelma &
Louise” phase, and I’m thinking Angelina Jolie is probably
saying “You know, he has great potential to be a hot looking
older dude!”). Some people are complaining the movie is too
long (it clocks in at almost the three hour mark) but come on, you
can’t squeeze 80 years of a person’s life in an hour and
half, and really, it doesn’t play out that long. I sort of
wish, though that more time would have been spent with
Benjamin as an old man, or rather, I mean as a young man, I
mean, when he was an old man but looked like a young man,
although I suppose his true formative years were when he was
an old man, I mean a young man, I mean when he was young but
looked like an old man.
Visually the movie does deserve a trip to the movie
theater, and I suppose, Benjamin’s death aside, it’s a great
movie, so I’ll just leave my rating at a very solid 4 stars
out of 5. The story is entertaining, the effects are
fantastic, the acting is entertaining, and Brad Pitt sure
has come a long way from his “I’m just a hot piece of ass”
days. If you don’t see the movie in the theater, which I do
recommend, put it high in your Netflix queue when it makes
it to video.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!!
L8R!!! |