The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Synopsis
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is new different time travel movie. It starts off with a woman in a hospital dying, with her daughter there with her to keep her company. But then her mom decides to give her a journal to read while there, so then she begins to read the journal of Benjamin Button. The journal starts off with a women dying and a young boy being born, but this boy is different, he looks like an old man in his 80’s. But soon they find out that he really is different, and instead of aging, he’s only getting younger as time goes on. Benjamin Button has a complicated life, living with his adoptive parents in a retirement home, but there he fits right in. Most people there think he really is as old as he looks, but a few know that he is aging backwards. But he must leave as he gets younger, and he takes a journey through life. He always tries to be with his one true love, Daisy, who he first met when she was only a young child. Daisy doesn’t seem to want to be with him in the first part of his life though, she eventually comes around though, but at that point he’s getting much younger, and sooner or later he’s just become as young as he can get. Brad Pitt stars in the lead of this, along with Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, and Jason Flemyng all star along with him in Benjamin Button.

Characters/Acting
The acting in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button was great, I’m not sure if it could’ve been really any better. Brad Pitt really got into the role of Benjamin Button, his character was the most interesting out of the characters, but that’s already sort of expected seeing as the whole movie is focused around him. You could tell Pitt really prepared for this role, and I’d be surprised at if he at least didn’t get nominated for ‘Best Actor’ at this years academy awards. Cate Blanchett was also pretty good in this, I didn’t really seem to like her character as much though, I mean she did a good job at acting in the movie; her character wasn’t the best though. Taraji P. Henson seemed to get into her character as well, like Pitt did for his role as Benjamin Button. Her character seemed to have some really sad moments, which she seemed to have done a good job in. Jason Flemyng really wasn’t in that much of the movie, but I didn’t like his character at first, I’m pretty sure he really wasn’t meant to be that likeable at the beginning though. His character got more likeable towards the end of the movie though, he just seemed to get nicer towards the ending. Jared Harris did a great job IMO; he did the second best performance in the movie after Pitt. His character was the most interesting out of all of them besides Pitt, but he was my favorite character in the whole movie, I was actually surprised at how much screen time he got, I’m glad he got all the screen time he got, he definitely deserved it.

Plot
The story for Benjamin Button was the best part in the entire movie; it’s the main thing that made this movie so great. This movie had such amazing story telling, that was the main thing this movie had going for it. I think that even if you didn’t like the movie, you can’t deny that this movie had amazing story telling. The main reason that this didn’t quite get a perfect score from me was the length; I think most of everything in there, for the most part, was needed, but there were some scenes that could’ve been cut and released once on DVD or something. The length really isn’t that bad though, because I’ve seen some long movies that are hard to sit through, and this really isn’t as bad as them. Now I’ve never read the short story, but I’m actually amazed that Fincher could turn a short story into a 3 hour long movie, I’m sure I’ve got to read the short story, but I guess there was a way. I didn’t really like the ending as much though; I thought the beginning of Benjamin Button was much better than the ending.



My Thoughts On It
Overall, I thought it was great, but it didn’t quite meet my expectations that the hype was suggesting. Now I don’t quite agree with people saying that this was David Fincher’s best film, I don’t think it was. It was a little better than Zodiac, but no quite as good as Fight Club or Se7en. Some of the stuff in this movie really reminded me of Forrest Gump, not the whole movie, but there were some scenes that really reminded me of Forrest Gump. This was the second best movie of 2008 for me, as long as I don’t see something in the next week or two that changes that, I don’t think something will, maybe Gran Torino. And when I eventually get around to finishing my top 100, which is actually becoming really soon, that this will make it pretty high on my favorites list. Maybe in my top 30 or maybe somewhere in my top 20. I think it’s going to end up somewhere between 20 and 30 though. But if you’re trying to pick a movie to see in theaters this weekend, or sometime soon, I’d definitely suggest seeing this one, because I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

9.5/10