This past weekend, I made one of my semi-annual trips to my local cineplex. Just kidding (sort of). The film I elected to see is a Best Picture contender and the most nominated film for Oscar this year. That said, I hope this outing represents a good start toward evaluating this year's Oscar contenders, though I'm fairly certain this film is not going to win, at least not the top prize, but, as usual, I digress. This film is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (who also wrote The Great Gatsby). I'd never read the story, but I can say that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the film, is anything but short. In fact, it's equal parts beautiful, visual, and poetic story as well as long, tedious, and slightly unoriginal motion picture. The visuals are so stunning, however, and the performances are so wonderful, that I found myself liking the movie in spite of myself.
When the film opens, Daisy (Cate Blanchett) is lying on her death bed in New Orleans, intermittently eased by pain medication and kept company by her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond), as Hurricane Katrina descends upon the hospital and its surrounds. Daisy asks Caroline to read from a diary stowed away in her things to bring her some comfort. The diary, as it turns out, was written by Benjamin Button, Daisy's erstwhile clandestine love. Benjamin (Brad Pitt) was born baby-sized but as an old man in New Orleans on the day that The Great War was declared over. His mother died in childbirth, and his father, unprepared for his abnormality, abandons him at the doorstep of a young Creole woman (Taraji P. Henson), who accepts him as one of "God's creatures" and her own. Expected not to survive, Benjamin defies odds and physics by growing younger instead of growing older. Through family and friends, loves lost and found, particularly including Daisy, whom he meets when she is just a little girl, Benjamin chronicles his unusual life and his observations about the lives around him. Tilda Swinton also appears as one of the women loved by Benjamin.
Directed by David Fincher (of Seven, Fight Club, and Zodiac fame), the film retains Fincher's trademark visual style. From impressive visual effects, such as a young/old Benjamin with an aged characterization of Brad PItt's face imposed upon the figure, to realistic and three dimensional-seeming gunfire when Benjamin's boat undertakes rescue operations in World War II, to fine but beautiful details, like scenes of starry skies or early twentieth century cityscapes and village streets, the visuals were nothing short of stunning. The film's sights took my breath away on more than one occasion, and I think it's a good candidate for the visual effects Oscar this year.
Associated with the visual effects were the costumes, art direction, and cinematography. Fincher is no slouch when it comes to his finesse with the camera, and this time he used many perspective-bending shots from angles below the torso to contrast Benjamin's size, physical stature, and anomalous aging with his surroundings and nearby acquaintances. When Brad Pitt finally fully occupied the screen as Benjamin, the camera perspective subtly shifted upward to head-level. Fincher's cinematographers also used color-washes to good effect, employing warmer hues for Benjamin's comfort zones, like his homes or places occupied by Daisy, and colder hues for the strange world he is eventually able to explore. Not to mention the impressive period-influenced costuming and great art direction: my favorite setting was the Russian hotel where Benjamin meets Tilda Swinton's character, resplendent in European forties society fashion, and the French Quarter homes, hotels, storefronts, and train station were also beautifully furbished and rendered. The makeup to show the aging effects of Benjamin and Daisy was also stunning (and I think it's a top contender for that Oscar as well).
Brad and Cate and Tilda and Julia and every other actor in this character fantasy displayed wonderful performances. They were believable and as realistic as this type of story would allow. As they are all consummate performers with a plethora of different types of characters under their belts, this film could do no wrong with this cast.
At the same time, the Curious Case of Benjamin Button was long and slow. The entire film is narrated by a combination of Benjamin, Daisy, and Caroline. There is some dialogue, but it's mostly Benjamin telling his own story. Because it flows this way for nearly three hours, the story becomes tedious. Benjamin sees relatively little action compared to his many conversations and silent observations. He meets many different characters and learns many lessons as more of an observer than a participant himself. This kind of storytelling, in my line of thinking, doesn't suit the motion picture medium very well. It makes me wonder just how long the original source material was and whether reading it would have elapsed any more quickly.
In addition, I think Fincher was influenced by, if not heavily borrowed from, certain character epics that have come before. More than once, I was reminded of Forrest Gump while watching this film. Granted, Benjamin is more aware of his surroundings and role in the grand scheme of life than Forrest ever was, but his intertwining activity and passivity in the timelessness of time rings familiar with Forrest's uncanny ability to be in the right places at the right times in history. Not to mention the introduction of a hummingbird, which symbolically flitted into and out of Benjamin's view at choice moments, reminded of me of the lazily floating white feather that opens and closes Forrest's adventures. For good measure, I was also reminded of Titanic while watching this movie, particularly during the scenes at sea and in light of Benjamin and Daisy's epic romance, how Daisy recalls it (since she interjects into Caroline's reading of Benjamin's diary by filling in missing passages), and how the film ends. Since this similarity may be more attributable to the adaptation of the source material, it's possible that the story of Titanic and James Cameron borrowed from Fitzgerald, but Titanic was filmed 13 years earlier, and the similarities between the two films are immediate and obvious.
Still, despite these noticeable shortcomings, I found myself enjoying the curious life and times of Benjamin Button for two primary reasons: the story itself is profound and, in meditating on timelessness, is timelessly relevant itself. In addition, the romance between Benjamin and Daisy is real - it's powerful, passionate, but always self-aware of the precarious and unusual circumstances looming large like a herd of elephants in their lives. And since Daisy and Benjamin choose to make a go of it for at least the short time in which their ages finally coalesce, the film (and/or the story) offers some adages and truisms about living in the moment and appreciating that time is precious, and that life and its curiosities can change or end at any moment.
With that said, I think the Curious Case of Benjamin Button warrants an 8 for being very good with minor flaws. As to the test, I think the jury's out on this one. To be honest, I sort of want to watch it one more time, to see if I can see foreshadowing clues or catch dialogue I missed the first time. I don't think it will affect my enjoyment of the film, and yet I have a feeling that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button may curiously be better on repeat viewings. I'm hesitant to invest in the film, however, until I see it again, so I'll wait for it to appear somewhere on cable in the coming years...and keep my curiosity in this film alive.