curious case of Benjamin Button

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button a 2008 American film, a very loosely based on the 1921 short story of the same name written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film was directed by David Fincher, written by Eric Roth, and stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The film was released on December 25, 2008.

 

Cast

Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button

Cate Blanchett as Daisy Fuller

Taraji P. Henson as Queenie

Julia Ormond as Caroline

Jason Flemyng as Thomas Button

 

Whats it all about? (Spoiler here: Continue at your own risk)

The movie starts of with the elderly Daisy (Blanchett) is on her deathbed with her daughter Caroline (Ormond) in a New Orleans hospital as Hurricane Katrina approaches in August 2005. Daisy tells the story of a clockmaker named Gateau (Koteas), who was commissioned to create a clock to hang in the New Orleans train station. After receiving news of his son’s death on the battlefield, he continued work on his clock, which he intentionally designed to run backward, in the hope that it would bring back those who died in the war, so that they can continue living with their love ones. 

She then asks Caroline to read aloud from a diary containing photographs and postcards written by Benjamin Button (Pitt). Caroline begins to read as the story transitions to Benjamin’s point of view.

The diary starts back in November 11, 1918, just as the people of New Orleans are celebrating the end of the Great War, a baby boy is born with the appearance and physical limitations of a man who is 86 years old. The mother of the baby dies shortly after giving birth, and the father, Thomas Button to his horror of knowing his son was of such, takes the baby and abandons him on the porch of a nursing home. Queenie (Henson) and Tizzy (Ali), an African-American couple who work at the nursing home, fond the baby on the back stairs. Queenie, who is unable to conceive, decides to take the baby in as her own, against Tizzy’s wishes. She names the baby Benjamin.

Over the course of the story, Benjamin begins to physically grow younger as he ages. In 1930, while still appearing to be in his seventies, he meets a young Daisy (Fanning), whose grandmother lives in the nursing home. The children play together and listen to Daisy’s grandmother read from a storybook.

A few years later, Benjamin goes to work on a tugboat on the docks of New Orleans for Captain Mike (Jared Harris). In their free time, the captain takes him to brothels and bars. For the first time, he meets Thomas Button, who does not reveal that he is Benjamin’s father. Later, Benjamin leaves New Orleans with the tugboat crew for a long-term work engagement. Before he leaves, Daisy makes him promise to send her a postcard from “everywhere”.

In Russia, Benjamin meets a British woman named Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton) and falls in love with her. Elizabeth is already married, with her husband working as a spy for the British government, but she has an affair with Benjamin. One day, on the morning of December 8, 1941, the day after the Pearl Harbor attack, Elizabeth leaves unexpectedly and leaves a note behind: “It was nice to have met you.”

Benjamin gets caught up in World War II when Captain Mike’s boat and crew are enlisted by the United States Navy. During a battle, the tugboat rams and sinks a German U-boat in the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the sailors on board the tugboat, including Captain Mike, die of wounds received from the battle. A hummingbird appears, symbolizing Captain Mike’s spirit per an earlier conversation where Captain Mike talked about the miracle of hummingbirds. After this, Benjamin sees death in a different way, as opposed to the retirement home where death seemed more natural.

In 1945, Benjamin returns to New Orleans, and again meets Thomas Button, who is now dying. Thomas reveals to Benjamin that he is his father and bequeaths all of his assets to Benjamin, including the house and the family button factory. Benjamin is now a wealthy man.

Benjamin learns that Daisy has become a successful dancer in New York City. Daisy attempts to seduce Benjamin but he refuses. When Benjamin travels to New York to meet Daisy at a performance, he finds Daisy has fallen in love with a fellow dancer. Later, Daisy falls victim to a car accident during a dance tour in Paris, inhibiting her dance career. Benjamin receives notice of this by telegram from one of her friends, and immediately travels to Paris to find her. Daisy’s first comment upon seeing Benjamin is “you’re perfect” – referring to his youthful appearance – but she turns Benjamin away, telling him to get out of her life. Later, Daisy regains the ability to walk through intense physical therapy.

In 1962, Benjamin returns to New Orleans and meets Daisy again. The two fall in love as both their internal and external ages become similar. Benjamin sells the house he had inherited from Thomas Button and moves into a duplex apartment with Daisy. Daisy starts a dance studio for young girls. However, the couple struggles with the issue of Benjamin growing younger while Daisy grows older. A couple of years pass and Daisy gives birth to a girl, Caroline. Benjamin, believing he can no longer be a “real father” due to his continuous reverse aging, decides to leave Daisy behind with his possessions and assets when Caroline turns one.

While reading this, Caroline learns Benjamin is her father. She becomes upset that Daisy took such a long time to inform her of this, but in turn finds that Benjamin sent her a postcard from everywhere for each of her birthdays telling her how he feels about his daughter.

Benjamin becomes younger and travels to various countries around the world. In 1980, he returns once again, now looking like a 25-year-old, to meet Daisy in her dance studio. At this point, Daisy is married to a widower, and Caroline is now twelve years old. Daisy introduces Benjamin to her husband and daughter as a long-time family friend. Daisy and Benjamin then meet privately in Benjamin’s hotel where they share their passion for each other, while realizing that Daisy has become too old for Benjamin. Benjamin departs and continues to grow younger until he develops symptoms similar to dementia as a pre-teen, barely remembering his past. Daisy moves into the nursing home where Benjamin grew up and takes care of him as he becomes a younger, more confused 8-year-old boy with a growing temper.

In 2002 the old clock in the train station was removed. Shortly afterward, in the spring of 2003, an infant Benjamin dies in Daisy’s arms. At the moment before Benjamin dies, Daisy claims to have seen through his eyes that he still remembers her. In the 2005 hospital room, as the power goes out due to Hurricane Katrina, Caroline leaves the room while Daisy passes away, just after wishing to see Benjamin and seeing a hummingbird fly by the window (a symbol of spirits after death). The city’s emergency sirens then sound as reports of the breached levees arrive, and the backwards clock is shown in a basement, still working, as flood waters begin to engulf it.

Born old and aged, a disgust so horrifying to have. 

as he ages, he grows younger

being able to walk. . . 

youth sparks back to a once old self

 

light comes back to the one dying dead. . . 

A beauty that was seen from so young but a maturity soon to be match by age.

LOVE, where both were about the same age

Age differece. . . .  

 

Younger by the older her gets

Living a life where everyone dreams, 

A love

Too young to love, and to be a father. 

Critics (oooooooooo)

The film has received generally positive reviews. As of January 8, 2009, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 72% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 164 reviews, with 77% of selected “Top Critics” gave the film positive reviews. According to Metacritic, the film received an average score of 69 based on 35 reviews. Yahoo! Movies reported the film receved a B+ average score from critical consensus.

Todd McCarthy of Variety gave the film a positive review, calling it a “richly satisfying serving of deep-dish Hollywood storytelling”. Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter felt the film was “superbly made and winningly acted by Brad Pitt in his most impressive outing to date.” Honeycutt praised Fincher’s directing of the film and noted that the “cinematography wonderfully marries a palette of subdued earthern colors with the necessary CGI and other visual effects that place one in a magical past.” Honeycutt states the bottom line about Benjamin Button is that it is “an intimate epic about love and loss that is pure cinema.”

Joe Morgenstern of the The Wall Street Journal gave the film a rave and states “Benjamin Button is all of a visionary piece, and it’s a soul-filling vision.” Rex Reed of The New York Observer describes “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a monumental achievement—not only one of the best films of the year, but one of the greatest films ever made”, and further states that it is “brilliantly directed and acted, sumptuously photographed and endlessly fascinating.”

A.O. Scott of The New York Times, states “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, more than two and a half hours long, sighs with longing and simmers with intrigue while investigating the philosophical conundrums and emotional paradoxes of its protagonist’s condition in a spirit that owes more to Jorge Luis Borges than to Fitzgerald.” Scott praised director David Fincher and writes “Building on the advances of pioneers like Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Robert Zemeckis…Mr. Fincher has added a dimension of delicacy and grace to digital filmmaking” and furthur describes “While it stands on the shoulders of breakthroughs like Minority Report, The Lord of the Rings and Forrest Gump, Benjamin Button may be the most dazzling such hybrid yet, precisely because it is the subtlest.” He also stated: “At the same time, like any other love — like any movie — it is shadowed by disappointment and fated to end.”

However, Anne Hornaday of The Washington Post states “There’s no denying the sheer ambition and technical prowess of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. What’s less clear is whether it entirely earns its own inflated sense of self-importance…” and says “It plays too safe when it should be letting its freak flag fly.” Kimberley Jones of the Austin Chronicle panned the film and states “Fincher’s selling us beautifully cheekboned movie stars frolicking in bedsheets and calling it a great love. I didn’t buy it for a second.”

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film two and a half stars, saying that it is “is a splendidly made film based on a profoundly mistaken premise.” He goes on to elaborate that “The movie’s premise devalues any relationship, makes futile any friendship or romance, and spits, not into the face of destiny, but backward into the maw of time.

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