Title: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Nominated for 13 Oscars. Won three.
Lost out to Slum Dog Millionire in major categories including best picture.
Starring: Brad Pitt, Taraji P Henson, Kate Blanchett, Julia Ormond, Elias Kuotaes
Directed by: David Fincher
Written by: Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
Music: Alesandre Desplat
Makeup: A big team lead by Greg Canom (Oscar)
Director of Photography Claudio Miranda
Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt and Set Decorator: Victor J Zalfo ( Joint OSCAR AWARD Best Acheivement in Art Direction)
Visual Effects: Team of four. (Oscar)
Rating: PG 13
Score: 6 out of 10
Having been a favorite at the Oscars along with Slum Dog Millionaire, this movie has a really fascinating story line. The story starts of with Kate Blanchett as an old and frail woman who is expecting to die shortly. She asks her daughter to read a diary the narration of which is the story. At the heart of the story is the thought of what would happen if we were able to reverse the march of time. To underscore this angle the movie starts of with the installation of a clock which runs backwards.
The story has at its begging the birth of Benjamin into the Button family which owns the hugely profitable Button company. Benjamin as new born has an ugly face and the family members find his look reprehensible. Adding to this woe the mother dies due to complications during birth. Mr Button is so furious that he tries to kill the child but ends up leaving it in the care Queenie (Taraji) who is taking care of elderly people in a nursing home. Queenie is happy that she found a new born baby and names him Benjamin.
There is some heart warming but incredulous developments here. When Taraji and every one discovers the baby has the face of really really old man, it is odd that they do not have some kind of fear of it. I can understand feeling love for a baby that is deformed or is unfortunate to be thought of unattractive. But an old man in the shape of a baby is a scary and weird happening which needs some display of horror. The fact that I did not see this a bit less unnatural. I am not questioning the old man baby syndrome but the reaction of the people around the phenomenon.
I guess there is some strong meta physical meaning to the fact that an old man is born and start growing younger and younger while other children grow older older. The very obvious thought that comes to mind is the universal desire to not grow old. The movie get more aggressive in talking about not only not growing old but in fact growing younger. Obviously you have to be old in order to show that your getting younger. So baby had to be born as an old man. This is odd. It would have been interesting to see what would be the story if Benjamin was born normally, grew old and then started growing younger.
The phenomenon of Benjamin growing younger down to marriageable age and a little girl Daisy (Kate Blanchett) growing up to be of a marriageable age and meeting half way is interesting. It is interesting how both Benjamin and Daisy loose their innocence on the way. Benjamin goes to sea and experience his initiation into adult life including romance, sex, war and camaraderie. Daisy experiences the same by going to New york to become a ballet dancer. It is the meeting of these two souls which throws up some interesting drama.
I guess what the films shows if not intentionally is that growing young is not pleasant. On the contrary it is a very stressful experience. It is interesting to see where Benjamin is heading as he gets younger. Kate Blanchett's character on the other hand is growing old in the natural way and it appears that this natural process of getting is in fact quite beautiful though apparently dreaded by humanity.
The movie begin with a a woman giving birth to a OLD man baby and ends with Baby old man. The whole story is narrated by a young woman who is growing up normally to a dying mother.
All these make for a fascinating story. There is some quite believable make up wizardry that helps to show Brad Pitt going through different stages of life. Good acting by Kate Blanchett. But that is all I took from this movie. I did not find the movie neither high on entertaining nor did I have a learning experience. So I am even surprised that it got as many as 13 Oscar nominations. Apart from making Brad Pitt look like a baby-that-looks-old or an old-man-that-looks-like-a-baby I do not see any film making artistry in play here. And the movie was long too, crossing 2 hours 17 minutes.
Now I think that it was only justifiable that Slum Dog swept the Oscars.
I give this movie a 6 out of 10.
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