When I first heard about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and read that Fincher, Pitt and Blanchett were all atached to it I immediatley was excited. I love Fincher and Pitt movies (Fight Club & Se7en) and obviously Cate Blanchett is one of the greatest actresses of all time. When the trailer came out I fell in love with it and wanted to see it right then and there.

Early buzz on it was not what I was expecting. It was said to be an average film. I was worried. So my expectations were lowered but I still wanted to see it more than any film the remainder of the year. I was happy that I had the chance to see the pre screening of this last night almost a month before release. I am very lucky.

It is a wonderful film. Almost everything about it was great. The direction was very well done and diferent than any film Fincher has ever done. A few scenes in particular I was just amazed at the direction. The make-up was the best make-up in any movie I have ever seen. They did a wonderful job making you believe that these people were young or very old.

The acting by both Pitt and Blanchett were near perfect. They both showed great emotion in these roles and made you believe that they existed. They made you feel happy inside when something good happens or sad when they hit a roadblock. Easily locks for nominations for both of them.

There were moments where I could not stop laughing and moments where I got teary eyed. That is what makes a great movie. There were parts that I found unnecessary or kind of dull, but I had to look at this film on a whole and realize that I have never seen a film like this before. It was a beautiful stunning film. Not quite perfect but good enough. I see Oscar gold for many catagories from this film.

9/10

See this as soon as possible.

Oh and before I went into this, it was going to be a deciding factor for both Pitt and Blanchett to be my favorite Actor and Actress. They both suceeded my expectations and now are both my favorites.

.

What if they had failed? Who's the disappointed couple that was pushed back to #2?

Al Pacino and Jessica Lange. I know, random right?

Haha. It was RDJ and Jodie Foster.

Well...

I'm upset. Brad Pitt was so great... yet the movie just couldn't become interesting. It was EXTREMELY entertaining, but it wanted to be something great. It failed at that. It had one emotional scene at the very end, yet tried to have many throughout... it just couldn't.

Can't settle on a grade. It could be an A... or a C.

Blanchett was very blah for me. And honestly, this was the most I've been disappointed by a movie this year.

no matter how hard i try, i just cant get excited about this film

A-.

Hihi.

Iron Man accomplished what it set out to do.

Sorry.

Being mediocre.

Be an entertaining comic book movie.

Button tried too much to be too many things. It was never really a love story. And it never fully focused on his adventures.

btw, how would you rate yourself?

Probably a C.

I try to be many things, but I don't fail at everything, so that is my saving grace.

I don't get it was this a joke?

I very much enjoyed TCCOBB, but I guess I just wasn't expecting a sequel to Synecdoche, New York quite so soon...

Benjamin Button and Caden Cotard share much in common beyond their twin initials and alienation from the time flow. (I was dreaming of an alternate universe in which David Fincher directed S,NY and Charlie Kaufman tightened up the screenplay of TCCOBB...)

I absolutely loved the first hour of this movie! It was a great Twilight Zone-esque concept fashioned into a very emotional perspective on life. Superb.

However, the second hour stalled out like a plane gliding on fumes. The film sadly lost it's way - - and part of that I attribute to the casting of Tilda Swinton. Her similar look to Cate Blanchett (which I'm certain Fincher did intentionally), made the story difficult to follow, despite it's perfect symmetry. This combined with the rather arch device of the old Cate Blanchett having her daughter read her journals/postcards almost completely crashed the craft...

Fortunately, the final forty-five minutes mostly redeemed the overall film, returning to the emotional truth and a natural denouement to the storyline.

Once again, I'm happy to see any film these days attempting to be too darn ambitious and intelligent - - it's quite rare in these days of idiocracy and hype - - but, oh... what a magnificent film this might have been...

18 out of 5.



(...could've been infinitely higher...)

I really wanted to love it, but I'm only in love with 3/4ths of the film: the techs, the acting and the direction. The script, on the other hand, is terrible. I'm pretty amazed as to how it didn't sink the film overall, but as it is, it's like a beautiful ship that's been shelled a lot.

David Fincher's best film to date. A fascinating meditation on life and death, and the beautiful, fleeting time in between.

As Hurricane Katrina bears down on New Orleans, a daughter (Julia Ormond) sits in a hospital room with her dying elderly mother (Cate Blanchett). One of the mother's, whose name is Daisy, final wishes is to hear her daughter read aloud the diary of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), an adventurous man who was very important to Daisy and who was born under usual circumstances.

Born the day the first World War ended, Benjamin's mother died in childbirth as festivities raged in the street. Benjamin himself was not a usual child. Though the size of a newborn, he was born an old man -- his eyes blind due to cataracts, his bones frail. Abandoned by his distraught, horrified father (Jason Flemyng) on the steps of a rest home, Benjamin was found and raised by the warm-hearted, maternal Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) and the ever-changing elderly residents of the home.

One day, one of the residents (Phyllis Somerville) introduces Benjamin to her granddaughter: Daisy. For Benjamin, it is fascination (love) at first sight and their relationship will blossom and evolve over the years, as Benjamin finds himself aging in reverse (becoming more vital and energetic with every passing year) and traveling the world, fighting in a war, etc. while Daisy becomes a celebrated dancer and grows older.

I'm trying very hard, but I can't find a fault in this wonderful film. Every performance is superb. Brad Pitt, in what is sure to be remembered as one of his career's finest moments, imbues Benjamin with warmth, charisma, and a subtle melancholy. A character we can't help but sympathize with and shed a tear for. And as played by the superb Cate Blanchett, the character of Daisy transcends simple love interest status and becomes an enchanting-but-flawed character we the audience are glad to invest in. Taraji P. Henson also shines. Her Queenie is an instantly lovable character, a woman you can't help but admire for her unswerving faith and compassion. And I can't forget Tilda Swinton, who is very memorable despite playing a relatively small role. She is Elizabeth, a bureaucrat's wife consumed by past failures who finds solace and excitement in a brief romance with Benjamin.

Fincher once again proves himself to be one of this generation's most talented directors. With director of photography Claudio Miranda, Fincher has crafted an extremely beautiful film. Every frame is sumptuous and alive. With editors Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter, he's made a film which lasts close to three hours but never feels overlong. Every minute is earned and valued, with certain sequences standing out as perfectly constructed (such as Benjamin's explanation of how Daisy's dancing career ended in an instant and how it could have been avoided if a series of unfortunate events had not transpired). I also must praise the terrific Eric Roth. The scribe behind The Insider and the underrated The Good Shepherd has expanded on an idea first introduced in an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story in many creative and thoughtful ways.

I definitely recommend The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It's simply a superlative film every film fan owes it to themselves to experience.

A

He wrote The Insider? Flawless script, one of the very best of the 90s. I think the best parts of the film (the ephemeral beauty of the passage of time) are the work of Fincher and Co., though. Roth's writing was pretty lazy, he just seemed to have ripped the framework from Forrest Gump half the time, and a lot of it didn't ring true.

I agree.

The writing was definitely the weakest element of this movie...

I kind of agree on the writing, but I loved this too much. Webslinger says just about everything I wanted to. The techs are amazing. Its very rare that CGI and effects are used to better the story So too the acting. Im not a big fan of Pitt but he's great here. He gives an understated performance which works brilliantly for the character.

I can understand the comparisons to Gump, but this film has far deeper themes than that film and BB doesnt bumble his way through famous events like Gump did. Blanchett is more beautiful than ever and really shines towards the end. Taraji Henson is a delight, I do hope she gets nominated for an oscar.

What can I say about Fincher. He's so far deliverd my favourite live action film of 1995, 2007 and 2008 so far. Cant wait for his next film.

And I dont get why some people are saying this film lacks warmth. Its a beautiful and haunting reflection of love, loss, innocence and forgiveness through the passage of time. Infact, I choked up a few times.

Grade: A+

Me too...

Yeah, even if I'm not a lover of the film per se, it's not cold.