Michelle SweeneyReview - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
January 9th 2009 10:12
The movie is set in New Orleans over a span of 87 years from 1918 to 2005. Daisy (Cate Blanchett) nearing the end of her life is in hospital while her daughter (Julia Ormond) sits by her side to make things as comfortable as possible for her. Regrettably for both of them they have not had a close relationship and Daisy opens up to her telling her the story of Benjamin Button and his life. As keeper of his diary, Daisy asks her daughter to read it to her while she contemplates her life prior to her death.
Narrated throughout by the character of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), he introduces himself to the audience. "My name is Benjamin, Benjamin Button, and I was born under unusual circumstances" and thus begins this curious tale. The unusual circumstances to which he refers? He was born prematurely old in a baby's body complete with arthritis, cataracts and possible deafness. His mother died giving birth to Benjamin and due to his "odd" looks his father Thomas (Jason Fleyming) snatches him from the birthing room in order to end his short life. Losing the nerve to kill the baby, he leaves him on the nursing home stairs where Queenie (Taraji Henson) discovers him. After declaring him to be "as ugly as an old pot but you still is a child of god", she takes him in and raises him as her own child in the nursing home. Due to the nature of his "circumstances", opportunistically this turns out to be the best place to raise an "elderly" child. As Benjamin ages throughout the movie he grows more youthful giving a whole new take on not wasting youth on the young.
The acting in this film is superb. Cate Blanchett plays Daisy from a young woman in her 20s through to old age and manages always to bring a truthfulness to any role she is presented with. The role of Benjamin Button provides Brad with a character that he fully inhabits with great subtlety although I would have liked to have seen more scenes of him inhabiting his youthful body as an old man. Taraji Henson brings the character of Brad's adoptive mother to life with vigour while Tilda Swinton revels in the part of Elizabeth Abbott, Brad's first love.
The screenplay written by Eric Roth (The Good Shepherd, Forrest Gump) created many stand out moments for me. I loved the scene discussing fate and its predetermination in regard to the accident befelling Daisy, reminiscent of the opening same of Magnolia (directed by Paul Thomas Anderson), another one of my favourite films. The scene annoucing that "I didn't know I was a child, I thought I was like everyone else there (the nursing home)" showed a unique tenderness with the handling of the story and the scene announcing Tilda Swinton's character to be "as plain as paper" made me laugh outright.
This film holds many small gems within a beautifully choreographed cinematic experience. A blind clockmaker builds a clock which tells the time in reverse. An old man tells a tale of himself being struck by lightning seven times. Even though these moments play minor parts in the film. it is this quirkiness that makes it an extraordinary film.
Voyage Review: 4.5/5
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