Amazing, amazing movie. Brad Pitt nails this role. I did notice the similarities to Forrest Gump.
, but didn't mind it. This movie just felt like a grand escape from our world.

A

I wish they would have had more of his childhood though, like attending school. Also Brad Pitt not playing the old on the inside boy was a misstep. I mean they had him play the young granpda and did it excellently,

Also how did Blanchett's daughter never notice her mom going out and taking care of Pitt.

i think at one point during the early stages of the movie she apologised to her mother for not being there enough.

Yeah the last few scenes are great. And quite a few great scenes throughout. The one with his father at the pier was one i wont forget, nor the one with the old Blanchett walking hand in hand with the little kid Button.

so good.

I was bored to death. The technical aspects though pull this up from total failure for me. I can't see myself ever watching this again. Not sure I understand the praise. I'm with the critics on this one. C

The film begins and ends really well, which wraps the movie together nicely in it's enduring themes: ageing, death and loss. The movie may at times seem to be all over the place because it tracks through a lot in Benjamin's life. However, I think it is very holistic in its aim and its thematic elements, and this is incredibly important because it is not a plot film. It merely follows the strange life of a man who ages backward, and the strength of such a film lies in its ability to remain consistent. And I think it succeeds on this level. Virtually everything ties back to the overarching themes of the film, and so there was very little that I felt was extraneous or irrelevant.

Furthermore, the story runs at a good pace. Perhaps some of the earlier sequences in the film, chronicling his life at home with Queenie, could have been better edited. But I wouldn't really know where to start. Queenie was such a lovely character, too. My final point here is that the final stretches of the film ride along very smoothly, and the film ends with a well edited sequence of shots and narrative, ending with the brilliant clock and flood shot. I simply loved that final shot of the clock. And the story behind that clock, told at the beginning of the film, strikes me as the perfect way to begin and end the film.

As Madgez mentioned, there are many wonderful scenes in the film. In particular, Benjamin bringing his father to the pier to see the sunrise is a very beautiful scene. Benjamin does it as an act of kindness and forgiveness to his father whom abandoned him as a child. It was especially poignant for me, because Benjamin talks something about how you can either get angry or you can forgive. That was one of the last days on earth for his father, as he died soon after. I also thought it parallelled the previous moment where both father and son were by water; the moment when his father wanted to throw him in the river after he was born as a "monster" as his father thought. As Benjamin is literally carrying his ill father to the pier, I immediately thought of that previous moment when his father was carrying Benjamin as a new born child, and was riveted by the mere suggestion that Benjamin might do what his father intended to do to him.

The entire sequence of moments with old Daisy spending time with young Benjamin were touching. When Daisy is reading the same story to young Benjamin that the two were read by her aunt back when Daisy was young, I just thought to myself, "this is great". There were other scenes during which I felt the same way. There were many tools that brought the whole film together. I was impressed.

The sequence where Benjamin works through everything that had to have happened in order for the cab to have driven down the street at the moment it did and ultimately collide with Daisy was brilliant. I cannot speak for anyone else (well, except my mother and a few friends who agreed), but when bad things happen to me, I often find myself thinking "if only I didn't do this" or "if only that thing hadn't happened, this bigger thing wouldn't have happened". So, I loved the whole sequence.

On the other hand, using the humming bird as a symbolic tool in the film was an ultimate failure, in my opinion. It just didn't work, and didn't feel appropriate for the moments (both of the occasions where the humming bird appeared were during storms). What exactly does the humming bird symbolize? I realize that Captain Mike had a tattoo of one. Also, there was some chatter in the film at the dinner table about birds that can't fly. But was it really that important? I don't think it amounted to anything, so it is simply unnecessary. Thankfully, this was a very small part of the film and doesn't take too much away from it.

Ultimately, the film isn't perfect, and I can absolutely understand where anyone who didn't enjoy the film is coming from. I really can. This is one of those films where I can see how it could hit some people as cold and boring, and others as brilliant. So, I'm not going to say that others' opinions in here are wrong.

But with that being said, I definitely do not subscribe to one of the main criticisms that seem to be among the critics. This idea that there are a lot of great individual scenes, but the film as a whole doesn't work. I disagree. There are, indeed, a lot of beautiful scenes that shine all on their own; however I feel that Fincher did a lot to make Benjamin Button a greatly thematic and overall cohesive film that is not only well directed but gorgeously shot and filmed. I also did not feel the film was cold; there were many moments where I was moved. I thought not just about Benjamin's life, but my own life and everyone around me. And I realized that Benjamin is not that different from anyone else who lived a "normal" life in which one aged forward. He encountered the same things we all do, and learned the same life lessons I hope we all learn, just in a different way. As Queenie says, "we're all goin' the same way, just taking different roads to get there."

And as that final shot faded into black, I felt that the film gave me something great. And that made me leave the theatre satisfied.

Peace,
Mike

Well there's yer probl'm right there!!!

This is my favorite film of the year. It's just absolutely captivating in nearly every single possible way. Brad Pitt's Benjamin and Cate Blanchett's Daisy, the definition of star-crossed lovers, are one of the most fascinating romantic pairings in modern film. Both Pitt and Blanchett are outstanding, with an understated Pitt making Benjamin charismatic at every different age in which he appears and Blanchett imbuing the flawed Daisy with humanity and spirit. The supporting cast (Julia Ormond, Jared Harris, Tilda Swinton) makes the most out of limited screen time but the highlight is the wonderful Taraji P. Henson as Queenie. The film is beautifully directed by David Fincher. Nothing feels out of place or unnecessary in this nearly 3-hour film, and Eric Roth's rich screenplay gives Fincher plenty to work with. I too don't understand the "cold" criticisms I've heard here and there for this film. In fact, no movie this year has made me feel as "warm" as this one did. Just beautiful. A

Disappointing. Nice effects and decent performances can't overcome a meandering film that could have cut at least 15 minutes and would have been much better for it. Thus far, Doubt is the only likely Oscar contender that is truly riveting from start to finish. It was all too obvious that Fincher and co. were bending over backwards in an attempt to please/attract every possible audience, and the final product suffers as a result.

Your cryptic messages are always very confusing. What is my problem exactly? Heh.

Peace,
Mike

Beautiful and poignant, and really, that is all that must be said (that and the guy getting struck by lightning has to be one of the best minor characters of the year)

A

I think he means thats the films problem.

Regardless, brilliant review Mike. I loved that "if this and that didnt happen scene" because like you I usually think the same way heh. Fantastic sequence, something you'd expecy from a quirky foreign or arthouse film.

That was the only Fincher moment in the film.

I was completely caught by surprise how much I enjoyed this movie. I took some of my friends who rarely see these types of movies, but every few months I encourage them to experiment on a movie like this. We all really liked it. We all thought it would be a movie that dragged on and on but I really got into it and didn't even notice the time. The only moment I noticed it was about an hour and a half into the movie, when Benjamin was still old, and just wondering how he could still be so old this late into the movie, but assumed they'd speed up when he was younger, which they did.

This movie has its faults, I know, but it is so rare to see movies like this nowadays. It has an ambition that a lot of Hollywood just completely is lazy about. It hardly can meet every thing it tries to accomplish, but I give it a lot of credit for trying.

My main criticisms for the movie other than portions of the script were Daisy/Benjamin's daughter. Her emotion of leaving the room upon finding out about Benjamin, but not only that, the fact that he aged backwards. You would think if anyone told you that, you'd react a bit more. And then when she said "I don't want to read this," and kept reading 10 seconds later, kind of lazy. I think it almost would have worked to do something like what Forrest Gump did where different people are listening to Forrest Gump's story on the park bench. Ex. Daisy gets different visitors throughout the movie in the hospital, and asks them all to read a bit of it, such as nurses, etc. I just cringed for some of the scenes at the hospital as I didn't think the story should have been told from the daughter's perspective the way it was. The Hurricane Katrina tie in didn't completely work, so maybe they should have showed a bit more on that. Ex. instead of just the clock getting flooded, maybe showing some of the locations important to the two of them. We heard about all of the elderly who suffered with Hurricane Katrina, maybe they could have showed just a brief glimpse of Benjamin's home, or the Benjamin Button shop, etc.

There was great chemistry between Cate Blanchette and Brad Pitt, which helped sell this movie. I would have liked to have seen more of how the two interacted when he was younger and she was older, but I think they already set all the pieces in play that we knew that it wouldn't all need to be said what the conclusion was going to be. The New Orleans setting was very fitting for this film and added a nice touch. Also really enjoyed lightning man!

What struck me most (other than lightning man!), was how they handled people passing away in this film. How would you handle a situation where when you are near the end, you see the people all alive and living in their heyday's around you, while when you finally reach that very point, they are on the opposite side of the spectrum. This film was able to find a lot of hope from a very depressing situation and conclusion. Benjamin was overall a very hopeful character despite growing up in circumstances that could be very depressing for someone of a young age. Imagine the situation where you grow up around so many old people, many of them passing away, and could still continue to be that hopeful later in life. Those people really see value in living their lives to the fullest.

You knew at the beginning of the film that there would be no happy ending, but you still felt like both characters found one. One of the best films of the year.

****

Great review, O!

I agree with almost every word except your conclusion...

Don't get the Gump comparisons, they both are a journey through a time period but thats where the link ends.

I enjoyed this, its slightly trite and obvious at points (the insert with Swinton finally swimming the channel for one) but overall its an enjoyable trip through a life well lived.

My only problem is that it needed to be edited a bit, especially in the first 1/3.

Thanks! Which part of the conclusion?

Your grade didn't seem to match the text of your review...

Ahh ok. Well out of all of the movies I've seen, I've only ever given three perfect ratings (ie 10/10, or 5 stars).

My mistake then. I thought you were grading out of 4 stars... (Some might say, that I shouldn't talk )

But don't let my confusion take away from the fact that you wrote an excellent analysis of this film.

No worries! Thanks for the feedback!

it was good. I enjoyed it but didn't find it anything great. The end of the road was obvious and there weren't really any surprises along the way.

B+

I knew Fincher was the wrong guy to direct this.

The biggest problem is that he's a dark, cynical, misanthropic filmmaker, and this is a tale requiring a fantastical, wondrous imagination. Fincher's pessimistic sensibilities end up clashing with the optimism the story presents, and he's never quite certain how to reconcile it. As a result, he ends up shooting the whole thing without any style or tone, and it becomes rather bland and plain for what it is. It never captures the premise in an interesting or exciting fashion, and the (rather boring) story is pushed to the forefront. If the script was stronger, maybe that wouldn't have been a problem, but it's not, and the whole film suffers because of it.

I mean, the visuals are pretty, but Fincher never allows us to recognize this. Instead of letting the shots linger and the beautiful vistas soak into our mind, he constantly cuts, chopping the whole thing up to make it as uninteresting as possible. The tugboat attack sequence is a perfect example of this. If Fincher had just let the shots rest, or even used one of his trademark tracking shots, the whole scene would've opened up and allowed the true beauty of the sequence to come to light. But he doesn't. The whole film is chopped into pieces - narratively, formally, and thematically.

There's still a lot to like here, but they're in moments separated by eons of awkward pauses and lingering looks. The opening tale, with its silent film influence and grainy look, is a truly innovative way to start the story off, but there's very little of that throughout the film. Only stuff like the constant lightning bolts and the 'what if' segment even measure up. The bulk of the film is lacking in any sort of creativity.

It's also far too long, with nothing necessitating such a length, far too similar to Forrest Gump (though not nearly as insulting and idiotic as that film), and far too focused on its utterly trite and moronic frame story, complete with Hurricane Katrina bearing down. It's basically a few brilliant moments trapped in a uninteresting movie - much like Benjamin Button trapped in his frail old body.

Probably one of the biggest disappointments in my moviegoing life.