Skip to main content

Benjamin Button is curiously good!

Of all of Fincher's films, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is clearly his most emotional work to date.

The story follows the life of one Benjamin Button - a man whose birth was both a miracle and disaster. He was mysterious born as an old man and soon discovers that he's aging backwards. The movie follows his life as he comes across new adventures and experiences along with the challenges of being different from everyone around him.

The story is loosely adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story of the same name. I say loosely because although the concept of a man aging backwards is used, almost everything else was changed. Not a bad thing at all - I was wondering how they were going to expand a 14 page story into a nearly 3 hour film (I'm still meaning to write a review on his short stories book).

Brad Pitt and David Fincher together is just money. They've had many successes in the past with Se7en, Fight Club, and now with Benjamin Button. There is a chemistry between the actor and director in this pairing that just works.

Cate Blanchett plays the love interest to Brad Pitt's Benjamin. There are few women in Hollywood who evoke elegance and beauty the way that Cate does... that on top of her accomplished acting experience (Nicole Kidman also comes to mind).

The movie is well done in terms of all the effects, sets, costumes and music to create the atmospheres of the past. The storytelling itself is also quite moving. It was kind of funny near the end during a sequence of scenes that are quite sad and weepy. During the moments of silence we could hear all the women in the theater sobbing. I whispered this to my sister and brother, and all three of us laughed quietly. Yes... we're dicks.

Of my three favourite Fincher movies, I'd have to rank Button second to Se7en but ahead of Zodiac.

Check it out if you can, it's quite an intriguing movie. Later geeks.

Comments

Kevin said…
What did you think of Pitt's acting on its own. Do you think his celebrity changed some critic's perceptions of his talent (or lack of it?)
The Lam said…
I've always thought he was a good actor. In this case he carried the whole show basically on his own. So much more credit to him for that.

Popular posts from this blog

REVIEW HAIKUS!!!! (#3)

It's time for another edition of Review Haikus; a feature I like to write when I'm too lazy to write out full reviews~!!! The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 Tony Scott schlockfest~! All his movies seem the same. A needless remake. Denzel's a bad-ass. Given up on Travolta. 1 of 2 ain't bad. Public Enemies Well? Disappointed. I expected more from Mann. The pacing felt off. Acting was good though. Man-crush on Depp and Bale. 5 more syllables! Saw VI Yes, another Saw. Harder to tell them apart. Blood, guts, bad story. Why more Saw movies? Each movie makes less and less. End this series now. ====== Later geeks!

Sam Raimi's Dragging Someone To Hell!!!

It's great to see Sam Raimi back in his form with his latest entry Drag Me To Hell . Simply glorious, it is a horror geek's dream. This is the Sam we all know and love from Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness , before he got all caught up in the comic book geek universe of Spider-Man . After 10 years (from the first time I watched Evil Dead 2 ), he has remained my favourite film director... although he did try my patience with Spider-Man 3 . I know this euphoria that I'm feeling now will be short lived, as even as I type this review, Raimi is already at work on the pre-production of Spider-Man 4 (yay?). So what is there to say about Drag Me To Hell ? This is the way a summer movie should be, touching on all those senses that make movie going an actual experience. There were thrills, chills, laughs and cheers; the way things should be! Drag Me To Hell tells a story of a young loan officer named Christine, who in an effort to advance her own career, has to turn down an

Lt. Aldo Raine wants his scalps!!!!!!!!!!!!

I missed The Inglorious Basterds during its theatrical run and it's a shame too because I'm a fool for Tarantino movies. But I finally got to see it this weekend and I'm happy to say that I mostly enjoyed it. I don't think it's his best movie, but it was damned entertaining. The Inglorious Basterds takes place during World War II and tells its story by following three different groups of characters: from Lt. Aldo Raine and his squad of soldiers infamously known as the Basterds, Col. Hans Landa, a Nazi colonel better known as "The Jew Hunter", and from a young Jewish girl named Shosanna, who had her family murdered by Col. Landa. We follow the Basterds in their Nazi killing business (and business is good) as they lay out a plan to take out several high ranking officials all at once. We follow Shosanna as she operates her theater and lays down her own plans in exacting revenge on the Nazis. And of course, the "Jew Hunter" is hot on their trail