The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Load of rubbish!!

Absolutely the worst movie.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is David Fincher's longest film (and it certainly feels like it), and shows his best skills as a director, but his weaknesses in adapting the screenplay. Like my previous issue with Fight Club, I loved the direction, but felt that the film was poorly adapted from the original novel/screenplay. The story of Benjamin Button's life is a great, intriguing concept for a film, and it definitely has its high points, but it also isn't quite enough to carry a nearly three-hour film. Where the film could have benefited from adding more depth to existing characters, some additional event or unnecessary character is introduced just to give viewers the impression that it feels more like a lifetime than a man's emotional and physical journey. Screenwriter Eric Roth basically transcribes the formula of his greatest work, Forrest Gump, and adapts it to Benjamin Button's curious case. It has many moments that feel inspired by Forrest Gump, and many moments that try too hard to be just like Forrest Gump. Your enjoyment of the film will depend on your enjoyment of certain parts of the story. While I enjoyed the serious, emotional moments of the characters and their emotional reactions to Benjamin's condition, other viewers may be more interested in the contrived events of his life, akin to Forrest Gump's successes, meant to prolong his journey.Another exceptional aspect of this film is the makeup and the performances. Brad Pitt may not be doing very much work, but the makeup artists have a hell of a job to do and they deliver flawlessly. Benjamin Button looks and feels complex as a result of the excellent makeup and body acting done on him. Cate Blanchett also does a great job portraying Daisy, Benjamin's lifelong love, and reacts to the situation she finds herself in realistically and emotionally. Depth is added in places you would expect, but it is lacking in places you would expect it to be. Also very pleasing and smart on Fincher's part was the ending which satisfyingly ties the film together and concludes many of the loose ends. If only the film tried less to be like Forrest Gump in reverse, the characters would have felt more realistic and the emotional payoff more earned. Even with the screenplay's faults, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has a better overall effect on the viewer than the individual scenes do. Great cinematography, direction, makeup, and performances elevate a unique, intriguing concept with a lacking screenplay to make it one of Fincher's more emotional works, but also one of his less memorable.3.5/5 stars

I think this film works as an example of how ordinary human beings can do extraordinary things when they have a desire to overcome their limitations and seek out a greater world outside themselves. The story is a uniquely creative and original one, told from the perspective of one principal character aging normally, and the other regressing after having been born 'an old man'. Their lives 'intersect' at the age of forty three, at which point Benjamin (Brad Pitt) begins coming to grips with the idea that he and Daisy (Cate Blanchett) are ultimately destined to live out their lives in separate ways. I do have a problem though with the timing of Benjamin's departure. The movie did a terrific job of restoring him back to a youthful looking young man over time, and it seemed to me that he could have enjoyed at least a decade with his daughter before heading off to parts unknown. His admonition that he didn't want to be her 'playmate' seemed hollow when Caroline was just a small child and he was still in his thirties. So that part of the story I think could have been handled a bit better. But otherwise, I thought this was a cleverly written story that also managed to reflect warmly on the racial component of having Benjamin raised by a black woman (Taraji P. Henson) who he considered his Mama. Interjecting the story with those humorous moments of the seven times lightning man was also quite brilliant, lending some welcome comic relief moments to a story that tended to get somber at times.

Brad Pitt's character was born with a congenital disorder, He struggled to be an ordinary person despite his adverse circumstances. Brad Pitt is adequate but not really outstanding. I'm not the biggest Brad Pitt fan but I thought he was dignified and showed his experience in this film, but it was not a breathtaking performance. The other main role (Rose) played by Cate Blanchett lacked emotion at times. This sadly resulted in the chemistry between her and Button to be minimal. I couldn't see the love between them. Overall, I thought it was a nice watch including some amazing and incredible visual, make-up effects, specially when Pitt was made to look about 10 years younger than he is now. But it won't be considered as an absolute classic. It is a beautiful film externally but fails to come up with a strong, evident message. I couldn't hate this film, because I enjoyed it, but I couldn't love it either, because this should have been much much more.

First of all, I would like to thank IMDb for their great contribution to the film industry around the world. You can decide either you want to watch the movie before you actually go start wasting your time on a movie that was not of genre.Secondly, The Curious Case Benjamin Button. OK! This is the first time I'm writing a review on IMDb and I would like to mention here that this movie is just underrated. I think this is one of the most important movie of my life. I have never seen such a wonderful movie. Even though there are 1000s of other movies that will stole your heart but this one is really going to stole your soul only if you are an emotional person rather than practical. I had listen about that movie before. It was just a chance when I was removing some data from my friend's mobile and I saw that movie and before deleting it, I just checked it's rating on IMDb and it was 7.8 at that time. So, I thought I will give it a watch tomorrow and today I hope that my life is going to change or I will try to change myself a bit more and my conceptions about the life.In simple words, this movie teaches you what is life and what could be the purpose your life. Each individual viewer can get a unique inspiration from this movie. I don't know what I can write more about this movie but I would also like to thank the entire team of this movie to create such a marvellous gem for the film industry.I don't want to spoil by writing anything about the movie and even I don't have words to describe anything. One day, when I will have my private video library then this movie will be the first one that I would like to buy.I will give this movie 10/10 from bottom of my heart.