In 2008 the world was treated to an epic romantic drama with a very different premise: the man in the story was aging backwards whereas the woman, roughly the same age, aged normally. They would physically cross in the middle of their lives, both for just a brief moment appearing the same age. It’s a strange concept for a romance but has its origins in a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatzby. This story bears little resemblance to the film, utilizing just the concept of a man aging backwards and jettisoning everything else. Co-Screenwriter Eric Roth, who also penned the similarly themed Forrest Gump, adapted this story in a way that never explains Benjamin’s condition but also corrects one of the oddest aspects of the original story, that Benjamin was born as a fully grown man. How that didn’t tear his mother in half, Fitzgerald never bothers to explain. Roth elected to have Benjamin born appropriately sized, just physically old.
The story is told entirely in flashback. Daisy Fuller (Cate Blanchett) is on her deathbed in a New Orleans hospital while a hurricane is threatening to touch down in the area. Her daughter, Caroline (Julia Ormond), is there to be with her during her final moments. Daisy asks her to read from a diary she has that was written by a very special man she once knew, a diary that she herself has tried to read and been unable to finish: the diary of Benjamin Button. The bulk of the story is what is told in this diary.
Benjamin Button was born in 1918. His mother dies in childbirth but not before exacting a promise from her husband Thomas (Jason Flemyng) to take care of the child. When Thomas sees his son, though, he is repulsed by the boy who looks shriveled up and old. He snatches the infant away from the doctor and nurse and flees into the streets of New Orleans, intent on throwing the baby into the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, he ends up leaving him on the steps outside a nursing home where the baby is found by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), one of the caretakers. Queenie raises him as one of her own, giving him the name of Benjamin. As the years go by he grows bigger and passes for one of the residents of the nursing home. He’s just a few years old but looks like he’s elderly. At first he is unable to walk and is confined to a wheelchair but, as he ages in reverse, he transitions to crutches and eventually is able to walk on his own without any assistance.
While at the nursing home he meets Daisy, the young granddaughter of one of the residents. The rest of this film is a mixture of Benjamin living through and participating in the second world war, growing younger, having relationships with women, and coming in and out of Daisy’s life as she first becomes a ballet dancer, then a dance teacher, then his lover. As this part of the story develops one question lingers: what will happen to this relationship over time. After all, eventually he will be much younger physically than she is. When she gets pregnant with his daughter can she handle raising both of them? The answer is “no” and both of them know that.
Upon release the critical response was polarizing. I remember Roger Ebert was particularly turned off by it because he got hung up on how wrong the idea of a couple aging in opposite directions was. He acknowledged that the film was a fantasy but couldn’t get over that one little hang-up, dedicating his entire review to that one concept. For me I try to give films their premise and, so long as it stays true to that premise, I can accept it on those terms. So what if someone really was born that way? Is he or she supposed to spend their whole life never falling in love because they are the only one like that? Of course not. I have no issues with the idea that the two become lovers. What I struggle with is the sheer number of people who seem to either not notice Benjamin is aging backwards or are not bothered by it. There is one token moment when the captain of a tugboat Benjamin has signed on to makes the comment that either he drinks too much or Benjamin is looking way younger. Benjamin simply replies, “You do drink a lot.” I would also think that if someone were really aging in reverse the government would jump in and be doing all sorts of medical tests trying to replicate his condition in some vain attempt to extend rich people’s lives. Am I cynical? Yes I am.
Watching this film it is no surprise it won Oscars for makeup and visual effects. Both methods were used heavily to age and de-age the main cast, especially Brad Pitt. The effects are absolutely spot on making Brad Pitt look old and wasted away. Likewise, towards the end of the film, the effect used to make him look like he did in his early roles in the 1980’s is almost too good. Brad Pitt does a good job emulating the way he looked and moved back then, too, without being too self-aware of his earlier personal. This would earn him an Oscar nomination, too, acting through all those layers of makeup and digital trickery. It’s actually surprising that Cate Blanchett was not nominated as she was also very good in this.
Unfortunately this movie suffers from the same problems Forrest Gump has, spanning a significant amount of time including several real world events while leading back to the two who are destined to be together for a short while. A little goes a long way and Benjamin Button just goes on for far too long. Too many of the asides serve only to extend the running time. We don’t need the extended scenes of him visiting a brothel and his whirlwind romance with Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton) needed to be shorter. The battle against a German U-boat, while exciting, adds little to the story other than to pump a brief adrenaline shot into the middle half of the movie. Some judicious editing could have trimmed nearly a half hour from this film and made it a little more palatable.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an odd film but it is not without its charm. For a time it was considered a frontrunner for the Best Picture Oscar. Then a little silent film named The Artist swooped in and took away all the thunder. The Artist was a love letter to motion picture history and critics and voters alike fell in love with it. Fifteen years later neither of these films is really remembered which is a bit of a shame. They are both good films worth watching. Of the two, Benjamin Button is the more fascinating film. It is such an odd premise and the execution could have been schmaltzy, but it avoids that pitfall. Director David Fincher has managed to take this ludicrous short story and turn it into a beautiful love story. Is it perfect? Hardly. But it’s still a darn good watch and deserves to be remembered.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin
Best Director: David Fincher
Best Actor: Brad Pitt
Best Supporting Actress: Taraji P. Henson
Best Adapted Screenplay: Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Best Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt and Victor J. Zolfo (won)
Best Cinematography: Claudio Miranda
Best Costume Design: Jacqueline West
Best Film Editing: Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
Best Makeup: Greg Cannom (won)
Best Original Score: Alexandre Desplat
Best Sound Mixing: David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten
Best Visual Effects: Eric Barba, Steve Peeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron
____________________________________________________
Release Date: December 25, 2008
Running Time: 166 Minutes
Rated PG-13
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas and Tilda Swinton
Directed By: David Fincher
Comments
Post a Comment