The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

[Franz Ferdinand]

Sounds like a definitive end: after lovingly portraying New Orleans throughout the film, why not "destroy" it at the end? It seemed gratuitous and hamfisted to me.

[flipp525]

Also, anyone have any thoughts about the movie's framing device - Daisy's dying moments lying in a New Orleans hospital while Hurricane Katrina is raging outside? Was that even necessary? What did it symbolize?

I think since their story is based in New Orleans and her age happens to extend to that period it just kind of falls into that point. They could have done the year before or after, but it was most likely just one of those passing moments seen throughout the film.

Also, like the prospect of Button eventually becoming a baby and dying, Hurricane Katrina serves as a dark cloud hanging over the entire film. A definitive end point, if you will.

[Zahveed]

Also, anyone have any thoughts about the movie's framing device - Daisy's dying moments lying in a New Orleans hospital while Hurricane Katrina is raging outside? Was that even necessary? What did it symbolize?

I think since their story is based in New Orleans and her age happens to extend to that period it just kind of falls into that point. They could have done the year before or after, but it was most likely just one of those passing moments seen throughout the film.

[Franz Ferdinand]

Maybe I was set up for disappointment with the mixed reviews, but I definitely did not enjoy it. It is the type of epic movie that is great to look at, but leaves you uninvolved and cold (I've seen that word several times in its discussion here), and is only great to look at once.

I will concur with Blanchett's fans about her here, she was terrific and memorable.

Also, anyone have any thoughts about the movie's framing device - Daisy's dying moments lying in a New Orleans hospital while Hurricane Katrina is raging outside? Was that even necessary? What did it symbolize?



Edited By Franz Ferdinand on 1234394446

[flipp525]

I loved Blanchet and the fact no critic's awards aknowledge how great she was is numbing me. Maybe her overexposure in recent years is finally hurting her, but it is unfair that a talented actress doesn't get the recognition she deserves for one of her best performances ever. .

How true, Harry. She gives the film's best performance by a mile and was woefully neglected during the awards season. It is definitely some of her most superb work.



Edited By flipp525 on 1234388552

[HarryGoldfarb]

Just seen it. I liked it.

How come has this film garnered so bad publicity is way beyond me... I know it has a lot of flaws, but come on, if Seabiscuit, Erin Brokovich, Chocolat, The Full Monty and The Green Mile can have the surname of "Best Picture Nominee" well, this film might have the same right.

First of all, the film is better than the sum of its part and I believe it is a great Directing achievement. Of course the big presence of a big studio was everywhere but the meticuolous work of Fincher was better than everything. The creation of the young/old Benjamin (face by an actor, makeup, visual effects, the body of another actor, the lightning, the camera work), the music in the service of a film (we always complain when the music is bigger than the film to the point of being annoying, right now I can not remember the score of the film but while watching the film it wasn't intrusive or overused, or corny), the great cast work, the flawless technicals aspects of the film (the old/young Benjamin was a very pleasant and surprising image, as well as the young Blanchet, the sea war scene)... all these ingredients were precisely blended in order to create a film that probably (most likely) Fincher is proud of, no matter how big were the request of the studio he was working for.

I like beautiful films, for instance, I love beyond any measure Howards End, I liked a lot Amadeus, The English Patient and enjoyed very much a film like Amelie. These aren't the best films in my very own list but I certainly can appreciate the art and craft behing them. TCCOBB is visually gorgeous and I thank that, cause in the end, I thought I was watching the work of an artist, a visual one committed with the film he had in his mind. Every image Fincher offered to us was one to remember. If the film ain't as poignant or important or necessary as some others (let's say, No Country for Old Man) is another story, but in no way this is a bad film. Of course there are a lot of better films with simplier stories, based only on a smart scrip, great performances and a director, and those are films to love (The Departed, Lost in Translation, Trainspotting, Kramer vs Kramer) but a well made fantasy film is also a good thing. I don't need a film like TCCOBB to remember that we have to enjoy and value this life, to be amazed of every life we meet in our way, but I thank a film like that if only for the beauty of it.

It's a film for the masses with a signature of an artist. I guess we, as film "critics" are getting more and more cynical, and getting incapable of enjoying some simple stuff. The "message" was cliche, told a million times and common place, but I could enjoy a film of the same old stuff if it is nicely done.

I loved Blanchet and the fact no critic's awards aknowledge how great she was is numbing me. Maybe her overexposure in recent years is finally hurting her, but it is unfair that a talented actress doesn't get the recognition she deserves for one of her best performances ever. I agree with the fact that Pitt is merely an expectator. His character is more interesting than his performance and that might have confused the voters. His better scene had no makeup/effect over it: his calmed worry at the restaurant about the child to be born and his paternity. Taraji was great but she didn't do anything new that impressed me (except for the fact she created a very stereotypical character that might have worked against her).

My biggest complaint was the current time storyline. The Hospital scenes were unnecesary, and those were saved only by the performers. As a script that's a big flaw.

Some scenes were overstudied, some frames overenhanced, the acting work overhelped, but in the end I liked the effort. Unlike a lot of previous best picture nominees Button is a film I can revisit some other day. It ain't a mastepiece... but for my money it ain't as bad as some people say.

[Hustler]

I´ve just seen it and didn´t like it at all. First of all, it´s so conventional! I´m so bored of seeing these kind of predictable movies. What´s the purpose of almost three hours of film? The structure of the film is completely stereotyped with the endless current subplot. You have the feeling of having seen the same film hundreds of times. Coming from David Fincher, an innovative filmaker, it surprises me a lot. As for the performances, c´mon guys! where is the marvelous work given by Brad Pitt? He delivers a boring piece of passiveness helped by the digital effects.
Sorry for my mood but I´m tired of these hollywood tricks that conspire against genuine films.

[dylanfan23]

I was just counting the groups acknowledged by imdb...the only reason i mentioned that was because i always look up a films awards on imdb after i see a film and i was a little shocked that no precursor they mentioned gave button a best picture. So i was curious about best picture winners not getting anything. So for all i know houston gave braveheart a best picture too lol. But i'm not sure groups in those types of cities are really worth acknowledging. But nonetheless, i do think it is significant that botton hasn't had any of the majors give it a win...not that it means anything at the end of the day, but its just another reason i don't think its going to win, to go along with me thinking the film wasn't very good.

[criddic3]

Actually, the Houston and St. Louis groups gave it Best Picture.

[dylanfan23]

Spoilers

I finally saw this film and i have to say i didn't like it very much. The good, it was so great to look at and listen too musically. I remember thinking to myself on several occations how beautiful this movie is. Also good was the acting, blanchett was very good, henson was very good, osmond was very good, swinton, jared harris, and pitt were all good. The bad, the story, i felt nothing extrodinary about this story at all once you get past the fantasy that this guy ages backwards. He basically does nothing until he leaves daisy and his child. And i couldn't get behind the love affair between him and daisy because daisy was such an unlikable character until she comes back to benjamin. I admired the button character, i enjoyed his passiveness and i thought pitt did a great job with this, but with that being said, its a nearly 3 hour film and you never really got to witness him having a conversation with another character. The voiceover is nice and charming but it isn't enough. The humor kept things going which was needed and i applaud that. I'm sorry but there just wasn't enough substance there to carry a film of epic proportions. And it was an epic story. I don't see this film contending at all with slumdog. And thats not only because i didnt care for it. This would be the first best picture winner since braveheart to not win a single critics or precursor groups best picture award before the academy awards(unless it wins the bafta). I would say wall e if it gets nominated has a better shot, i'd love to say milk has a better shot but thats unrealistic. I also think it would be a crime if brad pitt replaces any of the other contenders, namely dicaprio who was so much better. Same goes for blanchett, but not nearly as big of a crime. If she replaced jolie and leo i'd accept that. But she isn't better that winslet, streep, hawkisn or hathaway. I don't think she was better than jolie, leo or thomas either though. But she was very good. Henson, again i'll accept a nomination, but i don't think she was better than adams, and i think thats who she would replace so i wouldn't be for that. Technically, i'm for everything that its going to win, and i believe it will win a lot and deservingly so, but a beautiful film in no way makes a great film and i wish the beauty wasn't wasted on this story.

**1/2 out of *****

[Reza]

hilarious! all those that disliked THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON have to see this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh3fdylgU2w

:p

BB felt like I was watching Forrest Gump all over again......Yuck!!

[rolotomasi99]

hilarious! all those that disliked THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON have to see this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh3fdylgU2w

:p



Edited By rolotomasi99 on 1232403511

[Damien]

Benjamin Button is a movie that just seems to do nothing more than merely exist. It's well-mounted, well-acted, beautifully persuasive in period detail, but it serves absolutely no purpose as it meanders along.

Scott Fitzgerald's short story is a very dry comedy of manners that in its brief length makes numerous subtle-yet-acute observations about human behavior, self-identity and relationships. The movie takes this wondrously wry source material and turns it into sentimental goo -- though, I guess it's not surprising since the screenplay was written by Forrest Gump's Eric Roth. The movie essentially plays like Forrest Gump without the odious politics.

I don't even know why they bothered getting the rights to the Fitzgerald story -- other than the central conceit, there is not a single narrative moment in the original which shows up in the movie, starting with the fact that in the Fitzgerald, Benjamin's mother does not die and he is not given up and raised by a black woman. And the movie also treats Benjamin's condition in the opposite way of Fitzgerald. On the printed page he is born an Old Man, not a baby in an old man's body. His entire sensibility is an old man's, not just his physicality.

All that expense, all that footage, all those hours of hard work by all those technicians and craftspeople just to tell an audience to "Embrace Life," a sentiment you can find in your run-of-the-mill Hallmark card or any New Age-y website.

And even though its tone is very wry, Fitzgerald's work is infinitely more moving than this calculated-to-pull-your-heartstrings schmaltz. David Fincher, what the hell happened to you?



Edited By Damien on 1232433099

[Uri]

Sorry to be so late, but I finely had the chance to see it – it's officially opened next weekend, but it's being previewed this weekend.

It's a very intriguing film. Once you realize it's not about "story", it's not about "people", it's not about real time and place, all that talk about lack of warmth and emotional detachment is not really relevant. It's a self reflective film making, a meditative look, an intellectual cocoon dealing with itself in a very enclosed way which almost seems to be intentioned to shut out the spectator.

Whether one likes him or not, Brad Pitt is a Movie Star. In the last two decades he became an iconic representation of a kind of classic idea of what this term means – someone who's physically so out there, who possesses some kind of charisma which has nothing to do with intellect, cultural gravitas or even acting ability. Valentino had it. Garbo had it, as did Garry Cooper, or Hedy Lamarr. It's the ability to be a beautiful, emotionally blank canvas which invites the spectator to project his or her own fantasies on.

This attribute caused directors to explore and use Pitt as A Star. Even early on, Robert Redford recognized it and used him as a surrogate self, celebrating his effortless physical charms while acknowledging the dark sides of this kind of persona in A River Runs Through It. And last year Andrew Dominik showcased him as an older, more reflective Star to Affleck's groupie. The casting of Pitt as Jesse James in itself was a major artistic choice. From Thelma and Louise through Meet Joe Black to Troy there's a conscious use of Pitt's presence and the way people react to it.

A decade ago Fincher made Fight Club (which I renamed Being Brad Pitt) in which Pitt portrayed himself, or rather a fictional fragment of the imagination, formed in the shape of a certain movie star named Brad Pitt who actually exists as such in the cinematic universe of that film. It was a study of the fascination our culture has with media promoted artifacts and the fact that "stars" are likewise objects one is encouraged to lure after. And now Fincher continues and explores the very essence of that abstract entity, the movie star. This time one can call it The Curious Case of Brad Pitt.

Benjamin Button's life doesn't look like a real person's life. It doesn't look like the life of a real person who's a movie star. But as it can only be materialized within the realm of a movie, this life can be looked at as a metaphor to the "life" of the abstract notion which is what a "movie star" is. Since this entity exists only in the columniation of the movies the star has made, it is not obliged to follow the linear chronology mere mortals do. Watching On Golden Pond first, then Fail Safe followed by Mister Roberts, My Darling Clementine, Grapes of Wrath and finishing with The Farmer Takes a Wife and one has a curious case of Henry Fonda. It has nothing to do with a certain, real person who was born in Omaha in 1905 and died in LA in 1982. Jodie Foster is exactly my age. Yet if I watch Taxi Driver today, the only "Jodie Foster" I'll ever know, the one in the movies, is 13, I'm still 46.

The character of Benjamin Button - or BB (just like Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monro, or indeed, Brigitte Bardot) - is passive and reactive. It goes through life and this world without real involvement or obligations, moving from one cinematically familiar location to another (New Orleans! WW II aquatic battle scene! New York! Paris! all those exotic places he travels through later as a younger man), perfectly lit, dressed and coifed. He can be featured in a love story, and rightly enough the two we see are presented to us as movie's love story. First there's the '30s movie – set in a secluded, exotically romantic place, confided in location and time, a kind of movie where the camera will always stay discretely outside closed doors. (Unsurprisingly, this section is an emotional highlight, largely thanks to a standout turn by Swinton). And later we're treated to a '60s movie, relatively explicit (naked bodies strategically covered with sheets) and much more kinetic and outdoorsy. But in both cases it has nothing to do with real life, and these romances are ended once the movie, whether it's Casablanca or Barefoot in the Park is ended.

TCCoBB is filled with references to movies – there's always a sense of familiarity about it – a New Orleans streetcar, the name of Blanchet's character or a more generic images, such as a deck by the sea. And Pitt seems to be presented as chanelling familiar cinematic idols – a Gene Kelly, a Dean or a Brando and finely a young Brad Pitt. Blanchet's hair was once Moira Shearer's while one might be thinking of Katherine Hepburn and Blanchet herself as Hepburn at some point when the older Daisy emerges. But there are more theoretical references to the nature of the kind of existence the cinema enable – the reversal of time which brings the clockmaker's son back to life, the analyzing of Daisy's accident. And the running joke about the guy who was struck by lightning seven times, each time presented as a cinematic miniature – the movie star can die many times in different movies then come back in another one.

As a counterpoint to BB's there's Daisy's life. Not only does it go along "normally", she's a dancer. Dancing is the ultimate example of live performing art as a fleeting, elusive action which exists only while it actually happens as opposed to the ever lasting nature of performance captured on film. And off course the way her career evolve, brutally ends and then being revisited in a kind of secondhand way as a teacher is a way to accentuate the uniqueness of the cinematic immortality. (One can also look at it as a comparison between the hard gained, labor and talent based stardom of the Bette Davis school, represented on and of screen by Cate Blanchet and the fame based on luck and genetics, like the one attributed to poor Pitt).



Edited By Uri on 1231593901

[rolotomasi99]

not oscar related, but kinda funny:

He's a heartbeat away from the presidency, but that apparently didn't help Joe Biden get a movie ticket Saturday night. Employees at the Regal Brandywine Cinemas say the vice president-elect and his wife, Jill, tried to attend the 7:45 showing of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" at the theater on Concord Pike but left after they were told the movie was sold out.

http://www.delawareonline.com/article....EWS



Edited By rolotomasi99 on 1231268965