Ben Button

So yeah, last post, I was talking about Benjamin Button and Forrest Gump. Button is not a carbon copy of Forrest Gump, but very similar in plot structure and story. The better question is - is Benjamin Button any good?

I liked it. I mean, pretty much... (and there are gonna be some spoilers in this review, so if you haven't seen it... well, there were a ton of spoilers in my previous post because it was practically the whole plot)

Technically, it's brilliant. I watched some of the extras on how they used a combination of a midget, an actual old man, etc. and CGIed Brad Pitt's aged head onto those characters. The CGI in this one looks pretty much flawless... For a while, I thought they hadn't cast Pitt for the first couple characters (Ben in his 80s and 70s) and just used makeup on some existing old men to do the parts. Its different from Gollum or the Transformers in that it doesnt' look like a visual effect for the most part.

Actingwise, its Brad Pitt's show to steal and he does a good job and that's about it. I guess beyond the whole aging in reverse, Benjamin Button isn't the most interesting of characters. Pitt's at his best to me when he's playing loonier, more colorful characters like the boxer from Snatch, Jesse James in Ass. of Jesse James, or my personal favorite, the mental patient from 12 Monkeys. Aside from the visual trickery and I have to give credit for playing Button the whole movie at all the different ages, this is more Brad Pitt from Legends of the Fall with a southern accent (that was well done, but still sort of distracting).

Cate Blanchett doesn't fare quite as well, I just got irritated with her character and actually thought her best character moment is when she meets Benjamin and hides under the bed talking to him late at night. Much was said about Taraji Henson's role as Benjamin's mom. I thought this role straddled parody sometimes as a stereotypical sassy ole' black lady (and it gets worse the older her character gets) but she did play the compassionate mom well. Speaking of parody, Jared Harris as the tugboat captain... yikes! For me, this was the low point acting wise. Between a goofy accent, bad dialogue, and generally really hammy acting... Obviously yes, there's the directing and writing but for a really serious, darker movie tonally, he really stood out to me.

My two favorite supporting characters were Tilda Swinton and Jason Fleyming. Swinton as Benjamin's first real love, albeit as a late night affair in a hotel room, has a great chemistry with the experienced/inexperienced Pitt. Fleyming who most people don't know by name and generally is cast as a thug (like in Deep Impact) or psychopath (Jekyll/Hyde in the underwhelming LXG), is Ben's father, and he goes from being pretty evil character (almost throws Ben off a bridge as a baby) to quite a tragic one. I've never seen Fleyming with a part like this and really pulls it off well.

So the movie is long (2 hours 40 minutes), fairly depressing at times, yet I'd still recommend it. Anyone who knows my tastes knows I really enjoy David Fincher's work (Se7en and Fight Club are some of my all time favorites, I also like the Game, Zodiac, and even the maligned Alien3)
This is Fincher's take on a fairy tale/fable, in actuality, a pretty standard story that's painted in murky yellows and rusty oranges and while emotional, never felt like it was overly sappy.

Except for the wraparound story which I haven't really gotten to. The movie technically takes place in New Orleans, 2005, hurricane season. This has nothing at all to do with Benjamin's story, but tried to amp up the tension with a series of boring cutaways to Julia Ormond as Daisy's daugher and Cate Blanchett in old age makeup. Unlike the old Benjamin, this is obviously makeup and it really breaks up and distracts from the story every time this scene gets cut back to (it happens a lot). There's no real need for it, especially because Benjamin tells the story in 1st person the whole time, not Ormond's character (I know she's reading his diary, but still...).

So a recommend for technical wizardry, a non R rated Fincher film, affecting Tilda Swinton and non-evil Jason Fleyming

Stay away from the unnecessary length, the bland Cate Blanchett, and the goofy, redundant wraparound story

I'd give it 7/10... good, but not great

And that's all I have to say about that

Patrick