I haven’t seen it yet but I’d like to. A lot of great talent is behind it and in it.
I was indifferent at first, but the more I think about it after a week and half, the more I like it. In a lot of ways it was very low key. I remember reading the short story in college like, 8 years ago, and I remembered it broadly. The film was very different in a lot of ways, most of which were improvements (the short story started I believe around the Civil War (obviously so he’d be an infant by the 20’s) and I think had they left it that way it would have worked better (when a film becomes a timeline of the 20th century, it can become tedious) but thankfully the film avoided that cloying FORREST-GUMP-checklist-method of storytelling. I didn’t think the Cate Blanchett character made an interesting enough opposite for Brad Pitt (yet his characterization of Button was surprisingly non-descript). In fact, both their lives seem, in retrospect, very mundane. Which I both like and dislike; I don’t think the film considered Benjamin to be as boring an individual as I did, it would have been an interesting direction to explore.
So really, I guess I admired it, but it was nothing special. It was certainly my favorite of Fincher’s films however (really the only one I like). As someone who got his start at LucasFilm, he really shows what he can do with visuals. Particularly the opening segment about the clock and with the effects for the “old/young” Brad Pitt. Hopefully his future films will see him rely on his special effects background. With all the advances of the last thirty years, it would be nice to see a Cocteau of CGI, a director who can really make poetry out of special effects (I don’t think it will be Fincher (Guillermo del Toro is equally, actually more adept with CGI, but almost too much so, and seems to get lost in the minutiae of his films)).
Haven’t seen SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, Danny Boyle has always been hit or miss with me (loved TRAINSPOTTING when I was 19 (not so much now), still love 28 DAYS LATER) but I got a little turned off when I saw that it wasn’t nominated for the Comedy/Musical Golden Globe (I had been under the impression it was a comedy) so now I think it might be a bit maudlin for my taste, so I’ll probably wait and see it on DVD.
I liked the film too. And it was probably one of the best movies I saw last year. It certainly is a very well made movie. But it wasn’t my favorite film of that year. I don’t think it was the best movie I’ve seen that year. It was not Fincher’s best films (which is saying A LOT about Fincher). And while I think it was worthy of a Best Picture nomination, how could they just completely pass up The Dark Knight.
you are not alone…I hated the whole Katrina thread with flashbacks but on the whole this is a fantastic movie.
Yeah, the Katrina bit was a bit much, but from what I read in Film Comment, it seems they had already set the location as New Orleans and then the hurricane hit when they were scouting.
I did like how they didn’t overplay the fact that Hurricanes rotate counter-clockwise, the subtle metaphor made it better, but anytime you have someone on a deathbed forwarding a story through flashback, I think you’re on shaky narrative ground, unless you’re just impossibly good at filmmaking.
Actually, anyone able to come up with well done flashback films? Excluding CITIZEN KANE? I’ll start with:
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP
and
THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL
I would have to disagree. While I did enjoy Benjamin Button on some level, in the end I found the film to be a prefabricated, “this film is made only to garner Oscar buzz” piece. And of course, it did. When taken on its own merit, it’s an enjoyable film. When viewed from the perspective of its Oscar prowess, expectations can crush opinions. Was it one of the best films of 2008? Hardly. But it was far from abysmal; yet completely unworthy of many of its nominations.
It was certainly one of the most interesting visually. Of what I saw this year in the theatre, only this and WALL-E have a look and specific images that stick in my mind. so obviously someone did something right.
I really don’t like it.
check out the video at this URL:
http://thebrowncoat.blogspot.com/2009/01/curious-case-of-forrest-gump.html
I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I’ll be the first to admit that I give Fincher way more respect than I probably should. That being said, as much as I liked it, I thought “Last Chance Harvey” did a much better job at making almost the same points about old age (albeit in a far different manner,) and did so much more effectively and concisely.
“Liked” is a pretty low bar. I was certainly held by it all the way through, even though the story and characters as such are wafer thin. That’s because it’s all about technique. It was fascinating to watch this demostration of CGI effects applied to a context involving something other than “things blown’ up real good” (as they say on “Farm Film Report”) So yeah, I liked it. But it didn’t make my top ten by an exceedingly long shot.
I was quite dissapointed with the film, I love all of Finchers other work though. That might be the reason I was so let down, because I was expecting this to be his big epic masterpiece or something of that nature. I’d give it probably something like a 6 or 7 out of 10.
Where do you think Fincher will go after this? Will he return to his trademark dark subject matter, or will he do more heartwarming stuff? And is that what B. Button is?
Drew, I don’t think you’re the only one here. I thought Button was enjoyable and a very well written movie. I know so much more about the literary aspect of cinema than I do the technical, and for me, Button was very powerful and I thought extremely well paced in terms of its story. I don’t think this should be passed up as another pointless Hollywood hit, although I imagine in few years it will not be remembered.
>>Actually, anyone able to come up with well done flashback films? Excluding CITIZEN KANE? I’ll start with:
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP
and
THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL<<
RUTHLESS
Casablanca and Mildred Pierce are two pretty good flashback movies.
oh my god, how did i forget:
RASHOMON
best flashback film ever.
I liked it but the ending really left me cold and I’m bothered by the asymetry of him getting smaller again. If things were moving backwards why was he born an old baby only to die a young one? Why did he have to shrink if he wasn’t born the size of a man? I also expected something more to come of the whole Katrina thing and with all the other minor similarities to Forrest Gump, why include the hummingbird ala the feather just to drive the point home? I will say that the acting was exceptional throughout and it had many great moving moments (Taraji P. Henson,please take a bow). I liked it, but personally, I would be very disappointed if it beats Slumdog for the Best Picture Academy Award.
I’ve written about my deep distaste for this film before, so I won’t go into that again, but I will say this:
After watching the film and discussing it with friends on the way home, I jokingly made note of the fact that when Benjamin is actually in his old-age he’s played by child actors, as opposed to cgi-enhanced Brad Pitt, saying that the only reasoning I could imagine for this choice is that Fincher ran out of money by the end of the production, having blown his entire budget.
In this month’s issue of Film Comment, he flat-out admits that he did simply run out of money, hence child actors. Being the absolute control freak that he is, I’m sure this was a hard pill to swallow for the man.
Wow, Brandon that’s interesting. I googled ‘Benjamin-Button out of money’ and got this very funny article from New York magazine about how they thought Fincher copped out by using the kids. I’m glad I wasn’t the only who really wanted to see a ‘man-baby’
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/12/outrage_benjamin_button_delive.html
I was blow away by the visual effects and ended up enjoying the film because I was so impressed. I’m afraid to watch it again because I may find fault in it. Visually it was unlike anything I have ever seen before on film.
As a commercial movie it is pretty good, starting by a theme that is very original which is growing up old and dying young. But I agree with the “Oscar buzz” prefabricated mood on that one.
from the original starting point on, the film losses through the minutes. First of all, when I expect to see someone whose life starts the way button does, I want the writer to take me to all those self-discovery scenarios, but that only happens at the beggining when he doesn’t realize out why sees things clearer and begs to know the world outside the asylum.
When he falls in love with the little girl, the main reason of the movie losses itself the bad way. There are plenty of things it would be interesting to see how Button deals with. Having friends that are far from his age would be one of them (the screenwriter is very optimistic and unrealistic putting every other character unavoidably liking him all the time), being ill, being mature, or the opposite as he “grows up”. What about his views on nature?, sour grapes within people, the “mono no aware” feeling towards things?
Instead of driving a succesful starting point through so different possibilities, the screenwriter (following the Oscar price desire and hollywood stablishment) focus most of the time not on the CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, but the too-many-times-told story of a woman and a man falling in love.
Touching anything towards World War II was a dissapointment. When you have a character such as Benjamin Button, WWII wouldn’t be necessary, since his personal history is far more interesting and unique than so many other stories related to WWII, and I find it weak, disponsable.
Finally, the Katrina stuff was unnecessary, at moments distracting, as well as starting bringing back the flash forward from hospital from time to time, with terrible excuses such as “do I still read this letter?” thinking people is so stupid they don’t remember is a story brought to the past.
Predictable moments such as putting every single character’s death and funeral are a threat of boredom, and the old man’s thoughts on how he was close to death by lightning are fun the first two times, but…you know..
no i like him 2
I enjoyed it very much, my original dictation was around a 4-4.5 but now as I think about it and as it sat in my mind, I still like it but I think a 4 suits it better. My favorite from last year was “The Wrestler.” A fantastic film non the less.
Benjamin Button went broke, then died. I’m a sad Panda now.
I’m a big admirer of Fincher’s work, so I sure that colors my opinion somewhat, but I think more highly of the film than most of the people have expressed here.
I strongly admired much of the film, but I think narrative took its time and resulted in the film having a slow pace. It’s important to keep in mind that this was a short story, but I’m obviously not going to go to the other end of the spectrum and say that it should have been a short film. I think if the film shaved off 30 minutes, it could have been more manageable. I enjoyed the visual effects and the performances, in addition to the story itself, but nothing about the film really really stood out for me.
I just thought I would mention since I started this a few months back, that this films has dropped down my favorites of last year list. I hadn’t seen The Wrestler and Synecdoche New York which are my two favorites.
Every time a new Ben Button thread is started though I like the film less. Just kidding, well half kidding.
To be fair I haven’t seen the film, only trailers (which these days IS the movie) but after an article in New Yorker I decided to read the original short story and now I have no desire to see the film. They screwed up the story to make it about appreciating your time and the make-up effects on Brad Pitt, while the in original story Button is about immaturity and ignorance, questioning whether we actually become wiser with age or dumber. In short, they decided to lighten it up and make a fairy tale soap opera.
Pretty much, no you aren’t alone. I thoroughly enjoyed it, in the hands of someone else I wouldn’t have been interested. I think it’s widely misunderstood and like most of Fincher’s films funnily enough, it was marketed truely poorly. It’s not really confectionary as is widely panned and is actually a really fascinating film.
Drew Gregory
I ask this question here because I respect everyone’s general opinion as opposed to IMDb. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is my favorite film of the year. I would say I have pretty good taste when it comes to movies and I am yet to find someone who shares my taste and has my same opinion on Benjamin Button. Everyone has been going crazy over Slumdog Millionaire and although I liked the film I preferred around 5 or 6 other films more than it this year. Also to make me more doubtful of my feelings towards the movie Ben Lyons has named it his favorite film of the year : ). So I ask does anyone with my taste in film love The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?