Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

To call “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” one of the best films of 2008 is an understatement. To call it one of the best films of the 21st century is more appropriate.

I can’t stop raving about Benjamin Button and its amazingness, and apparently, neither can other critics. There’s so much to talk about, I’ll have to relegate my commentary to stuff that you can’t find on other critical websites. It’s no secret that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the new “Forest Gump”. Eric Roth “adapted” both the sucky novel by Winston Groom and the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story. And “adapted” in both instances means improved. Mr. F. Scott’s story is not one of his best and Eric Roth took the best elements (the science-fiction element of a man living his life backwards) and created an almost-original story with which to examine the human condition.

From the start of the movie’s remarkable technique of explaining the story through flashbacks between the past and 2005 Louisiana being ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, we know that we’re being given something different. The strengths of Benjamin Button come from its excellent storytelling, largely due to the efforts of directorial genius David Fincher (who brought us Alien3, Fight Club, and Se7en). There are a multitude of brilliant eye-waterin’ visuals. My favorites are the excellent boat shots during WWII and the scene of Ben and Daisy on the fog-covered veranda. It’s such a joy to watch a director who really knows what’s visually attractive and knows how to exploit it in a way that’s not corny, melodramatic, or overreaching. In the face of so many so-called “modern epics” like “300” that use such sweeping visuals and Matrix-inspired stop-motion techniques, it’s nice to see a little subtlety to make a good scene. There’s no shortage of tension and drama in Ben Button either. You get emotionally invested in the characters and their fates, to the point that if you look around in the theatre near the end of the movie, there’s hardly a dry eye.

There’s so much emotional and thematic depth that I want to just briefly touch on without spoiling the plot. The symbols of the hummingbird and the backwards clock both bridge the story from start to finish, acting as a motif for change and permanency. The fact that life is fleeting and death is inevitable, but also beauty to be had in the life that one can live. Brilliant stuff. Couldn’t be better written in a novel, and certainly works great on the big screen.

And all the other elements of the story work great too. The characters of Benjamin and Daisy are compelling and extremely well-acted by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The special effects are worth mentioning too, and I’m confident in their ability to secure Academy Awards.

Speaking of those daggum little gold statues that mean so much, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button should be a shoe-in for Best Picture in any other year besides the 2009 Awards. 2008 had some of the best movies in decades, so it’s a little unfair that Ben Button, Doubt, Slumdog Millionaire, Burn After Reading, Gran Torino, and The Dark Knight have to be running all together for the same spots. Let’s hope the Academy given The Curious Case a little somethin’ somethin’ on February 22nd (day after my birthday, mind you) and give it the recognition it deserves.
MY RATING: Benjamin Button is one of those films that will be considered classic for years and years to come. It’s indeed another Forest Gump. Heartfelt and extremely replayable.