CLEMENTINE'S REVIEWS

19th January 2009
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Writer: Eric Roth
Director: David Fincher
Actors: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond, Taraji P. Henson

I feel as if I've never really watched a Brad Pitt movie - one where he is the main focus of my attention and his role is a true character study. Benjamin Button had me completely devoted to the character.

Abandoned as a baby, Benjamin is found by Queenie (Henson), a loving woman who hasn't be able to have a child. Benjamin (Pitt) has a  strange condition: he is born as an old man, and gradually regresses  in physical age. Mentally he ages as normal which proves to be a  frequent dilemma during his life. Daisy (Blanchett) is his childhood friend who sees the young boy in the old man. Their lives are destined to intertwine. In present day, Caroline (Ormond) sits a vigil next to her dying mother Daisy in a hospital, who is intent on her daughter reading the diary of Benjamin Button as she dies. Thus the story is narrated as a journal, Benjamin's voice transporting us to his past.

The entire film is beautifully crafted. The make up for the characters as they age is unobtrusive and quite magical, especially Benjamin when he is physically old, and Daisy as a graceful young dancer. Blanchett wafts elegance with every movement. As always, Swinton plays Swinton - a cold brittle woman. She's not getting any romantic comedies. Pitt handles Benjamin with restraint and had a great performance I could really focus on.

While I found everything handled deftly, I expected the whole film to be more profound about life and death. I was expecting more intensity, like strong ocean waves. What it delivered was a wash of a river, flowing on from the very beginnings, following its path out to the sea.

Read Zee's review of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).