TNMC

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is expertly crafted, well acted and highly ambitious in scope.  And it is emotionally touching, particularly at the end.  But despite all that it is a movie with a problem.

The problem relates to the core of the story.  Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is a man born old.  As a tiny infant he was beset with all the problems of an eighty year old.  Abandoned by his father on the steps of a retirement home after his mother dies in childbirth, Benjamin isn't really expected to live long.  But he is adopted by Queenie (Taraji Henson), the operator of the home, a woman dedicated to taking care of others.  So little Benjamin grows up amongst the elderly, beset with arthritis, poor eyesight and weak bones just like those around him.  It becomes clear that his wrinkled elderly appearance confuses everyone around him.  They mistake for a shrunken old man and treat him accordingly, giving Benjamin an unusual selection of information for a young boy.  It's something that is part of his life until his forties when he actually looks his age for the first time.

For the audience, this is constant distraction.  The special effects and makeup that create Benjamin's odd appearance are brilliantly executed.  The reverse aging is seamless, giving us a child's body with the the skin, face and movement of an old man, while always clearly looking like an aged Brad Pitt.  And late in the film when we get a shot of Pitt looking like a teenager, the effect is so good it's just plain spooky.  The special effects department deserve a lot of praise for their work here.  It is amazing.

But those effects are part of the problem.  People simply don't age in reverse.  This is an idea that is fundamentally wrong in the experience of human existence.  The problem isn't suspension of disbelief.  The problem is that it is virtually impossible not to be constantly thinking about those special effects.  Brad Pitt's performance is excellent and the effects are excellent.  No one is really at fault here as they all did their jobs very well.  But the audience is asked to spend an entire evening with a character who is completely backwards from their experience.  And so we stare at Benjamin the way we stare at a circus geek.  They are something that just doesn't click with life as we know it and yet there they are, openly inviting us to watch.  It is fascinating and impressive but that creates an emotional distance between us and the character.  Despite all that the movie is effectively emotional, but I can't help believe it could be a lot more so if not held back in this way.  About the only solution I can think of would to use an unknown actor for the role.  We are quite familiar with Brad Pitt and so things that make him look different are very obviously makeup and/or special effects.  An unknown might avoid that problem by giving us a face we don't know.  But then perhaps the movie doesn't come alive when Benjamin reaches his forties and there is something of a sigh of relief that Pitt finally looks properly like himself.

Despite all of that for one complaint, I won't deny that this is a very good movie.  Sure it does feel just a bit like Forest Gump, also written by Eric Roth, but that's a very small sense of familiarity.  Benjamin is his own character with his own story and the only reason we recall Gump is that both have a way of spanning history that makes us consider the passage of time.  Otherwise they are entirely different.  What this movie is best at is the idea of mortality and taking advantage of life while you can.  Benjamin does just that, thus making sure his life is never boring.  His biggest problem in life seems to be one of timing.  He is inexorably linked with Daisy (played by Cate Blanchett as an adult) who he meets when they are both children.  He is a few years older but of course is only physically similar to her in age for a span of few short years when they are much older.  There are times when each of them really wants the other but the time is just not right and hearts are broken.  This makes for a very satisfying romance when it finally clicks.  Pitt and Blanchett have great chemistry together, something they managed once before in Babel.  Don't be surprised to see them keep getting together in the movies since critics go all gooey-eyed every time it happens.

This is also quite a long movie but I can say as I really noticed while watching it.  If a movie keeps me interested I don't much care how long it runs.  If it loses my attention... Well, just look back through my old reviews for a variety of insults unsuitable for polite company.

Again, this is a very well made movie.  I have to wonder how well it will hold up in memory though.  That emotional distance it creates makes it seem likely that I'll have a lot of trouble remembering much of this in a few years.  I suspect what I will remember is those amazing special effects.