Hermit Cinema: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

This is another movie that I put off watching for far too long. With a running time of two hours and forty-five minutes, I kept reaching for it before thinking to myself that I wasn’t in the mood to watch a nearly three-hour movie. Which is stupid really, especially since several of my very favorite movies are among the three-hour variety.

Several people I know told me they weren’t too crazy about this movie, likening it to a less-interesting take on the  Forrest Gump storyline. I couldn’t disagree more and feel that relating those two movies together is mere cultural laziness. The fact that a movie tracks a person’s life and the historic events that happen through it doesn’t make it Gump-like. There, the main character was making history. Here, we witness one man’s story as history unfolds around him.

As most people already know, this movie is about a man who ages in reverse. Born into a wealthy family, his mother dies in childbirth and his father, horrified over both the loss and appearance of his newborn, abandons him on a New Orleans doorstep. A kindly, god-fearing woman who is the caretaker/caregiver of a retirement home takes him in. With his seemingly elder appearance and infirmities, he fits right in. Mentally though, he longs to discover the world with the restless curiosity of a child.

Slowly he discovers more and more of the city, even taking a job on a tugboat. The skipper of the boat (Jared Harris) steals every scene he’s in, while also introducing Benjamin to the pleasures of a brothel. There he also encounters his real father, who recognizes Benjamin immediately and strikes up a relationship.

Meanwhile, he also begins a lasting friendship with Daisy, the granddaughter of one of the seniors living in the home. Immediately, she recognizes that Benjamin is not at all like ‘an old person.’ They begin to correspond regularly once Benjamin ships out on the tugboat. Living abroad, he has his first love affair with Elizabeth Abbot (Tilda Swinton), the wife of an English diplomat and spy. Eventually the tug and its crew serve the US Navy as WWII breaks out.

Up until this point, Benjamin still had the appearance of a senior citizen. He returns home to New Orleans and now has a more Brad Pitt-like appearance. To cut to the chase, he reunites with Daisy (now played by Cate Blanchett) and begins pursuing her, though she is living her own very independent life as a ballet dancer in Manhattan. Their relationship dominates much of the remainder of the movie and Cate Blanchett really shines. This is no usual love story though as they both know Benjamin is beginning his slow ‘decline’ into childhood.

To me, this was a very different movie for David Fincher. I like every movie he’s ever made (Fight Club being my favorite). He’s a technical, storytelling genius but it seems his movies are getting less and less about effects and technical achievement and more and more about performance. Here, the effect of Pitt aging in reverse is a true achievement but is done so well it doesn’t dominate or distract. This movie is really about letting the actors tell this very unusual story and they tell it quite well. In some Fincher movies, special effects always become a character in and of themselves but here, they blend seamlessly into the storytelling.

Pitt’s performance is hugely underrated in my opinion. He strikes just the right balance of youthful curiosity trapped inside a senior with the wisdom of an elder trapped inside a teen. It never seems like he’s acting.

For almost three hours, I couldn’t stop watching. When I had to take a bathroom break I hit pause and then walked hurriedly to the restroom, took care of business, then hurried back. I can’t give a DVD much stronger of a recommendation than that.

I give this movie an A.

Tags: Benjamin Button, brad pitt, Cate Blanchett, David Fincher, Jared Harris, Tilda Swinton