by Spencer Hawken

Created on: January 11, 2009

Since catching the trailer during mid 2008, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button became one of my personal must see movies. Initially expected to arrive on UK shores at Christmas the movie was delayed slightly for a February 2009 launch, this struck me as being quite odd because it certainly is one of those movies that on initial glimpses oozes Christmas cheer, under the direction of David Fincher (Alien 3, Zodiac, Se7en) this was bound to be a movie for the family to see.

The big family hook of the movie is that for its lead character Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) he begins life at its end and moves backwards (or forwards if you wish) through to the state a normal person would be at birth.

The product born of tragedy, Benjamin arrives in the world with elastic skin, severe arthritis, failure of several organs, and blindness. Unwanted by his father Thomas (Jason Flemyng) he dumps Benjamin on the doorstep of an old people home, a home run by the kind hearted Queenie. Queenie takes in Benjamin fearing that the next days will be his final ones, however as time goes past he just gets better. By the time Benjamin is seven years old he looks like an eighty year old man, too ill to walk he moves round in his wheelchair. As time moves on Benjamin must live his life in reverse as he gets younger those around him age and die, how will true love hold out with such a curse.

If ever a movie deserved the title "No-brainer" then this is the movie; while it seems like a fantastic idea on paper or even in your head the reality you need to ask yourself is where exactly can the story go? The movie starts with birth and undoubtedly must end with death; the big question however is why on earth it would take the best part of three hours to tell such a tale.

There are a great deal of problems with this movie, first of all the movie is very much like a normal life but told in reverse. The momentous issue of the movie is that Benjamin is a very unusual man, but short of his curse his adventures (albeit a curious incident during the second world war) are pretty bland; meet a girl, fall in love, fall out of love, fall back in, sleep around, you have the idea. The revelation of this dullness does not really hit you until the first hour of the movie has passed, during that time you get to understand the illness and see Pitt evolve. But once you have understood the curse that Benjamin lives by, what you are left with is a hollow gift, a movie with no clear direction, predictable plot, and characters

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>