All of the elements are in place to make The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, one of the nominees for Best Picture of 2008, an outstanding movie. It has an intriguing story as its basis: a child is born as an old man and ages backwards. It has good actors as its leads, Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, and a fine supporting cast. It has an impressive scope, pretty much the entire 20th century and some of the loveliest places in the U.S. and Europe. It has so many teams of special effects wizards to make what seems impossible--the grafting of Pitt's face onto various of Benjamin Button's bodies at different ages--into something believable. And, yet, watching this film left me feeling unsatisfied.
I think part of the problem is the framing device of the movie. Blanchett's Daisy is dying in a New Orleans hospital while Hurricane Katrina is gathering force outside. Her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormand) is reading to her from Benjamin's journal. What follows is a series of flashbacks to various moments in Benjamin's past. Just as a vignette begins to gather some emotional resonance, though, we are drawn back to the hospital room to hear Daisy and Caroline talking about the events that have just been depicted. I'm not really quibbling with the choices that the filmmakers have made in presenting the story, but the effect is one that doesn't allow for the building of tension on the part of the viewer. The reconciliation between Daisy and Caroline just isn't as intriguing as the one between Daisy and Benjamin that occurs in the flashbacks.
Benjamin was born on the day that World War I ended. His father, grieving over the death of his wife from childbirth, abandons his son at a stranger's house; he cannot face his child, who looks wrinkled and perhaps deformed. The house where he leaves the baby happens to be filled with elderly people who are looked after by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) and Tizzy (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali). Queenie, being a goodhearted person, takes in Benjamin and raises him as her own child. Benjamin is not give much hope for living, but he defies the odds and starts to grow up...well, grow young...well, you know what I mean.
While he is still only about seven years old or so, Benjamin meets Daisy, the granddaughter of one of the other residents. The two begin a friendship that they sustain over a period of years as Daisy grows older and Benjamin grows physically younger. His life takes him sailing around the world, including an extended stay in Russia, where he meets and has an affair with Tilda Swinton's Elizabeth Abbott--a pretty emotionally satisfying vignette, by the way. Daisy's life as a dancer takes her primarily to New York and to the tutelage of George Balanchine. Daisy and Benjamin manage to meet several times over the years, but until both are in their 40s, they do not develop a relationship. When they do, though, the best part of the movie begins.
It's almost two-thirds of the way through the film before "Movie Star Brad Pitt" shows up looking like himself. When he does, the movie finally kicks into high gear. The love story between Pitt's Benjamin and Blanchett's Daisy is charming and emotional and sexy. It's the heart of the film, really, and it's all too brief. I do understand that given the nature of the story, it can't help but be brief, but for a film that clocks in at almost three hours long, I'd like to see a bit more of the Brad Pitt with which I'm familiar. Blanchett gets to look pretty much like herself for a substantial chunk of time, but not Pitt. And, really, it's the two of them we should be waiting for, not the next special effects gimmick to see how well they've managed to "age" or "youthen" Pitt.
The script is filled with homilies, most of which are rather pat and inconsequential. What does it mean to keep saying to people that you can't really know what to expect? How "deep" is it to suggest that nothing really beautiful can last? Who are the people who don't know these lessons already? I suppose we could "learn" from this film that we should just accept things as they happen and try to accept people as they are, but those seem like such insignificant statements to make in a film that has pretensions of being Great Art.
It's really not the fault of the director, David Fincher. I've liked much of his other work like Zodiac and Fight Club and even parts of Se7en, and he does solid work here too. It isn't the actors who are to blame, either. I don't think they are given a great deal to do. Much has been made of Pitt's underplaying of his role, but I don't know that he has a choice but to remain on the surface; his character isn't given a great deal of depth. Benjamin doesn't really change all that much, except in a physical sense. Blanchett is always reliable in her performances, and she manages to do her usual good work here with what little she really has to work with (but I had to keep looking at her face in the scenes set during Katrina just to reassure myself that it was Blanchett). I'm not as impressed with Henson's turn as Queenie as others seem to be. I thought she was spectacular a few years ago in Hustle & Flow, but here she is given so little to do except be the perfect surrogate mother that it wastes her considerable talents as an actress.
I think the fault has to lie with the screenplay in this case. It's written by Eric Roth, who based it on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I've not yet read the story, but I'm familiar enough with Fitzgerald's work to know that there would be more substance than this film offers. Roth also wrote the screenplay for Forrest Gump, and I will readily admit that I was not looking forward to watching that movie again for this project. I hated it the first time I saw it in the theater, and my distaste for it has changed little over the years. I didn't particularly dislike The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but its emotional impact is just too stunted for it to truly be considered one of the best pictures of the year.
Oscar Wins: Art Direction, Makeup, and Visual Effects
Other Oscar Nominations: Picture, Director, Actor (Pitt), Supporting Actress (Henson), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Original Score, and Sound Mixing
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