The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(David Fincher, 2008)
3.5 Stars
There are many occasions when a DVD sits, still in its packaging, upon my shelf for months and months without viewing. Sometimes it’s a random purchase that I didn’t really want, sometimes it’s a gift that, though with the best intentions, isn’t really my cup of tea. Sometimes, and indeed more often, however, it’s simply a case of a film that I’ve been wanting to watch for a long time, but just haven’t been in the right mood for. On that count, I will eventually get round to The Hurt Locker as well at some point.
And so to David Fincher’s Oscar magnet, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Naturally, I had heard a lot about this one, and as such avoided it like the plague for a good year before actually sitting down to watch it. Let the hype die down and all.
I must say that for a good half hour, I wasn’t overly sold. The screenplay, coupled with Fincher’s maudlin photography echoes Burton’s Big Fish, feeling somewhat old hat. Cue Brad Pitt, however, and the movie soon picks up, following Pitt as his life plays out in reverse.
Indeed, the concept is intriguing, but, as was pointed out by a likewise criticiser of the motion picture of whom I am blessed with acquaintance, had he not been living his life backwards, this would have been an utterly dull film; the story of his life is actually rather lacklustre, and the people he meets, baring the wonderful Jason Flemyng as Button’s father, are without the charm of the aforementioned Burton outing.
That said, it’s entertaining, and at times pulls on just the right heartstrings. At not far off three hours though, this is a life story that really could have done with a little more incident.
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