lol i know right.

"omg more people agree with me, i must be popular"

and u know what's really funny. I've noticed that the people who have really, really liked this movie have ignored this thread. rather the 12 same people have come back, for a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and something 6th attack. like just to prove how right they are. o rly.

and yoshue, this forum is still largely about people patting each other on the back. this isn't an exciting debate. The Crash thread, Children of Men. Now they were debates.

i saw the film for a 2nd time last night, and it's still as magical as I remember it. and i believe it is a masterpiece.

I think the fantasy plays 2nd fiddle to the fact that this story is about love. i think it's a wonderful exploration of love.

I want to see it again too. Its definitely about love, forgiveness etc

Finally Shack gives a decent bashing. But I saw his opinion of this film coming from a mile away, sort of like mine with Slumdog, so shack's bashing gets a B-.

Shack, calm down. This is not as bad as Crash. It's not even as bad as Babel.

Agreed

Hell, it's better than Slumdog Millionaire!

Can anyone explain the Taraji P. Henson Oscar buzz? She does nothing in this movie.

Or Brad Pitt for that matter. He brings nothing but good looks to his character. I could have played Benjamin Button better.

Cate was decent but not spectacular as she usually is.

That is what you call "residual buzz from when no one saw it but people were trying to figure out what would be the juiciest role". For whatever reason, BFCA and SAG decided to roll with it, but luckily BAFTA knew better and went with Swinton instead for their Top 15.

I think Button lived an amazingly interesting life.

Affair with a older woman
Took part in a war
Inherited an unknown business
Had a deep but short romance with the woman he loved
Travelled the world

Pretty great to me!

I have to say the comparison to Gump here is totally unfounded. Now Gump admittedly has its flaws, but it's at least a fun and entertaining TBS style movie, it has life and charm. As opposed to Button, which is totally stone faced, melodramatic, "We must act like human rocks because we're making deep comments about death!" style. They're completley, utterly different in tone. Gump/Jenny/Dan are likeable charasmatic faces... There's nothing worthwhile about Button and Daisy. Gump is fun to watch, Button is just dull melodrama

I'll also state that the treatment of the women characters here is painful. I can't stress enough how completley worthless Daisy the person is here. There's literally nothing of value there. But hey, she's the most beautiful girl you've ever seen, who gives a shit about the rest. Daddy married for the same shallow reason. Even Queenie... omg, I can't have children, god save me. Yay, mammy for life now. Tilda is the only one with any worth, though the stupid 68 year old women swims the channel bit just killed that character. Every other female character is either a hooker/bitch who hooks up with Ben for sex, or a form of mammy to him. Has Fincher ever had a female character on equal level to the males? Fuck no he hasn't

Alien 3 Shack?

Panic Room Shack?

Fincher made Panic Room? Well alright it's not like there was anything he could or could not do, he was a hired gun for a Jodie Foster led project. In the Alien series Ripley is already established when he came in

Even accepting those, his record in Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac, and this is spotty to say the least

Fincher was on board Panic Room before Jodie Foster. She joined at the last minute.

Two of his six films feature strong heroines in the lead...I'd wager that's a better percentage than most of his contemporaries.

This isn't even the worst BP nominee of the last two years.

It may be bland, but at least it's not horribly insulting like Juno.

juno is awesome fuck you

silencio, old man

The irony of the trajectory of this thread is that, in SiskelEbertian terms, I'd probably give the movie a very mild thumbs up. I wouldn't tell someone not to see it.

But it's just a huge disappointment and missed opportunity.

While I still wasn't too big on the film as a whole (It hasn't improved much since I watched it), I will say that I thought Daisy was the only legitimately interesting character in the whole film (Well her and Swinton, but I think that mostly has to do with Swinton herself). The predicament of their relationship (Mostly post-accident) was so engrossing and almost heartbreaking that it kind of made me wish that the writer had decided to bypass the poorly developed EPIC aspect and gone more for something of a bittersweet fantasy romance that the movie began to find near the end. Unfortunately, it didn't, so THAT story is buried underneath about an hour's worth of story I didn't care for, and I ended up with a film that I just couldn't like/love.

Zodiac - "the wife"
Seven - "the wife"
Fight Club - "the drugged up sex object"
Button - "selfish slut dancer who's only quality is her looks/affair woman/hookers/mammy"
Panic Room - "female heroine"
Alien3 - "female action hero borrowed from earlier films"
The Game - haven't seen

I'm sorry but that's a spotty record. 4/6 and it appears the movies he had most control over, the only female characters in the whole film are possesions and/or sexual objects or people who serve men. Another is a franchise film with an established lead which was his big break and oppurtunity. I'll accept Panic Room

actually a good third.

Can I ask what's interesting about Daisy? I can't find anything. She's pretty much just a shallow slutty dancer chick, Button loves her on first sight and the movie never presents any other reason for him to, other than her looks. At least Tilda had a few interesting things to say.

I'm unclear on how Daisy is a slut. I mean in the film you see her with 3 people. Button, the young NY fella and her later husband. Not to slutty there I must say.

Benjamin on the other hand goes to a brothel, has an affair with a married woman and also has a section where he accepts he slept around. If anything Benjamin is the slut here.

love at first sight.

shack, do u know what that means?

"I've been with all the men"

It's more about how she acts with Benjamin at the post dinner scene, though.