Reviewed by Deborah Day
(December 2008)
Director: David Fincher
Writer: Eric Roth, based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, Julia Ormond, Taraji P. Henson, Jason Flemyng, Jared Harris, Tilda Swinton, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali
In trying to find a tie between F. Scott Fitzgerald's Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby and Daisy from his short story adapted into The Curious Case of Benjamin Button starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, obvious characteristics jump out immediately: youthful impetuousness and a harmful vanity. But this Daisy opens the film elderly and on her deathbed, displaying a clarity of character that Daisy Buchanan couldn't imagine existing, never mind aspiring to achieve. Blanchett imbues this Daisy with a loveliness virtually unparalleled in Hollywood - "virtually" here, especially given the CG facelift the 39-year-old actress was given to play the character as a teen and in her 20s, the polish of the process eventually wearing away much like aging in real life.
But, though Daisy introduces this story, the film focuses on the case of her soul mate Benjamin Button after all, and it is indeed curious. Benjamin Button was born an old man (physically) and grows younger - so that he's a childish old man aging his way to youthful senility. Courtesy of some award-worthy special effects, Brad Pitt plays Benjamin Button from the character's early years as a crippled old man into his teens. By the time the character's "childhood" happens, the audience is so invested in the fable that the actor switch doesn't even register. Credit to Pitt for convincing his audience so thoroughly to suspend disbelief.
Taraji P. Henson (Hustle and Flow) garnered a Golden Globe nomination for the role as Benjamin Button's adoptive mother, Queenie, and would be a sorry oversight in the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award race. Bringing an earthy center to the fanciful film, Henson delivers heart, body and soul.
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali appears as Queenie's on-again-off-again love Tizzy, who acts as a sort of father figure to the boy. Captain Mike (Jared Harris) also tackles that challenging role in Benjamin's life, teaching the man-boy life lessons - mostly concerning the opposite sex and alcohol. Captain Mike brings Benjamin to Russia on his tugboat, where the shy youth (who looks like a 60-year-old) meets and falls in love with eccentric English adventuress Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton).
That Benjamin Button was written by the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Forrest Gump, Eric Roth, will come as no surprise; Roth even uses some of the same devices, like a recurring magical element - here, a hummingbird to Forrest Gump's feather.
Fight Club director David Fincher presides over a richly painted canvas. From costumes to sets, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button covers the period of 1918 to Katrina without a detail overlooked, providing an inviting escape into Benjamin Button's curious life, the remnants of which - a scrapbook chronicling his remarkable existence - are threatened to be washed away.
"You never know what's coming for you," is Queenie's refrain throughout the film. Fortunately, moviegoers can take comfort in knowing that an extraordinary tale about an ordinary life turned inside out and backward is coming for them. -MPM
Photos ©Paramount Pictures. Top: Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett; photo by Merrick Morton.