Every once in a great while, there comes an extraordinary
movie that’s so transfixing and gracefully beautiful in the way
it moves that viewers are as content to simply watch and marvel
over it as it plays as they are confounded by how much it
engrains itself into their memories days after they see it. The
process of being so spellbound and entertained by a work that it
resurfaces in the conscious over time defines Movie Magic and is
precisely what Hollywood should strive when it commits fiction
to the screen.
Glib as the proclamation may sound: this year, David
Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was the
movie that reminded me that the above kind of movie still
exists. The picture—a fusion of old-fashioned storytelling,
cutting-edge technology, and just plain brilliant talent— has
left me so dumfounded and overwhelmed and giddy that I don’t
know where to begin discussing it. Tack on the fact that the
movie’s sense of time is out-of-whack itself—the title
protagonist ages backwards—and I’m as good as screwed when it
comes to writing this review.
The movie was made from a screenplay of over 200 pages by
Eric Roth, the brilliant writer who fifteen years ago penned
Forrest Gump, another character-odyssey of infinite
elements. Roth and fellow story-scribe Robin Swicord found their
premise in an F. Scott Fitzgerald short-story: Benjamin Button
is born with the body of an old man and grows physically younger
as time passes. They expanded this into a work that encompasses
the breadth of American history, the emotion of great romance,
and the tragic inevitability of a life story.
The basic idea behind The Curious Case of Benjamin
Button is endlessly thought-provoking, but director Fincher
would never let you know it as the tale unfolds. Something new
and/or remarkable occupies the viewer’s immediate thoughts at
every step of the way.
After a brief, but vital parable on the nature of time that
I dare not spoil, the film opens at the onset of Hurricane
Katrina in a New Orleans hospital. Caroline (Julia Ormond) is
comforting her dying 80-year-old mother Daisy (Cate Blanchett)
amidst the sound of the harsh rain. At Daisy’s request, Caroline
reads aloud from the diary of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), the
great romance of her mother’s life who she never knew due to the
extraordinary circumstances of his.
What follows is the opus of Benjamin’s (indeed curious)
existence, which began at the end of World War I and continued
for the better part of the Twentieth Century. It seems foolish
to go into detail because the movie’s intricacies are better
left discovered, but I’ll summarize the main points for the sake
of cogence. Born wrinkled and weathered to a mother who dies in
childbirth, a crying Benjamin is left at the doorstep of Queenie
(Taraji P. Henson), a caregiver for the elderly who raises him
as her own. Defying doctors’ warnings of his impending death,
Benjamin grows stronger by the day. He gains the ability to walk
at seven, goes to work on a tugboat bound for Europe when his
teenage body is strong enough to withstand the rocking waters,
and has a passionate affair with a seductive Brit (Tilda
Swinton) in a Russian hotel in his early twenties. During World
War II, Benjamin finds himself aiding Allied Forces aboard the
boat during his long return to Louisiana…
… And I’ve just skipped over the most important part of the
story. While away from home, Benjamin quietly yearns for Daisy,
the woman who will eventually, fatefully become the love of his
life. She’s the granddaughter of one of Queenie’s tenants, and
she and Benjamin hit it off during childhood. In their early
years, Daisy showed Benjamin the purest compassion he ever knew
because her young, innocent eyes saw nothing wrong with his
elderly appearance. Even Queenie, a woman with the kindest of
hearts, all the while prayed for the boy because she knew he
wasn’t normal. But to Daisy, Benjamin was simply her
playmate.
When Benjamin returns from Europe, he endures a great deal
struggle to win Daisy over, just as the protagonist of every
proper old-fashioned love-story should. But he and Daisy’s
future together is certain. Unfortunately, just as their romance
is an object of fate, so is the ultimate tragedy that Benjamin
will continue to grow younger and Daisy older. They are helpless
to their own devices and will one day be unable to coexist. The
emotional impact therein is far greater than that of the
standard epic love-story, which might fatally send the man to
war or diagnose the woman with cancer. Benjamin and Daisy find
themselves in a relationship that is destined to collapse in a
slower, more painful fashion, and yet it’s all the more
beautiful and moving and downright whimsical because they cannot
help but embrace it regardless. A lot happens over the course of
their lives that I will not reveal here, but I will assure you
that each development feels as natural as it does unexpected.
And all funnels back to our thoughts and passions tied to
Benjamin and Daisy’s everlasting bond.
Given the sweeping nature of the story, it’s easy to forget
just how groundbreaking the visuals in The Curious Case of
Benjamin Button are, a testament to how seamlessly they have
been integrated into the film. Fincher employed impressive
face-replacement technology that allowed Brad Pitt to play
Benjamin at all periods of his life by animating his
facial-expressions onto the profiles of actors whose bodies were
better suited for the different ages. (Pitt is physically
present for about two-thirds of the scenes, which he was able to
pull off with simple make-up.) The film never once seems like it
has been animated; all of the images are lifelike. This
represents something of a landmark: a film with visuals so
masterful that the viewer can’t tell the difference between
reality and CGI. Sure, the feat has been achieved before with
exploding buildings and end-of-the-world catastrophes, but to
replicate it with something as sensitive and complex as the
human face is remarkable. Let’s also not forget that the movie
was shot digitally and yet boasts some of the best
cinematography of the year thanks to Fincher’s career D.P.
Claudio Miranda. Between the photography in this film and
Slumdog Millionaire, I’m beginning to think that traditional
35mm has indeed met a formidable opponent.
And the performances – how have I spent this long without
gushing over them? While The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
is by definition an auteur piece given Fincher has refined such
a sprawling, mammoth project into a near-perfect symphony, the
depth achieved by leads Pitt and Blanchett is equally vital to
the film’s effectiveness. Pitt’s ability form a distinct
character over so many different ages is a masterful achievement
in and of itself; that he makes Benjamin one of the most
sympathetic and relatable protagonists ever encountered is just
an added bonus. It would be a shame if the Academy didn’t
recognize him because he disappears into the role so much; I
fear that voters who haven’t done their homework may not even
recognize that Pitt plays Benjamin at every stage of life
because the transformations are so unbelievable. With Ms.
Blanchett, however, there is no such excuse for a snub: she’s
recognizably mesmerizing throughout, like one of the
screen-beauties seen in the 1930s epics to which this film’s
form often pays tribute. She is the main reason the central
romance works so well.
All of the above comments represent initial reactions I had
watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. As I said
in the opening of this review, it’s a film that begs to be
simply experienced, so entrancing you almost forget you’re
watching a movie even while recognizing its substantial
narrative and stylistic accomplishments. I could go on about the
thoughts I’ve had on the film’s themes about the nature of time
and the sublimity of love in the week and a half since I saw it,
but I fear that I would be analyzing a great film to death.
Truth is: Fincher has made a work of art so precious that we’re
all entitled to pure personal reactions, an occasion so rare in
contemporary cinema that it must be protected and celebrated.
For now, I’m content in chewing The Curious Case of Benjamin
Button over some more and anticipating a second viewing.
-Danny Baldwin, Bucket Reviews
Review Published on: 12.24.2008
Screened on:
12.13.2008 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood,
CA.