Review: the Curious Case of Benjamin Button - a Cinematic Turd

In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Benjamin Button is born old and ages younger. Brad Pitt's unbelievably engaging acting only polishes this cinematic turd. I have never written a cinematic rant but this "film" called out for a pen lashing. Please know that I have not shied away from the spoilers.

Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is born in tragic circumstances, and shortly after his birth, is left in the care of Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), a woman working in an old folk's home. At a young age, Benjamin falls in love with one of the resident's beautiful read headed granddaughter, Daisy (Cate Blanchett.) They embark on separate adventures, their lives taking them to and from each other, reuniting and disappearing from each other's lives.

Brad Pitt's cinematic accomplishment as Benjamin Button is nothing less than phenomenal. He has to play a young man in character, mentally and in spirit, trapped in the body of an old man. He has to play young and old at the same time, but in a way that allows the audience to completely suspend disbelief and have empathy for Benjamin. Pitt gives the audience all that is necessary to believe in Benjamin's plight by comfortably slipping into his skin. He doesn't play up the old or the young; he does not dismiss one for the other. No film can rest on a single actor's shoulders, unfortunately, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is taking a piggy back ride on Pitt.

Writers of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Roth and Robin Swicord rewrote Forrest Gump without touching depth of character or diving Benjamin into a pool of fascinating circumstance. The plots are so similar, it's impossible to miss the similarities.

Forrest Gump falls in love with Jenny when they are children. This also happens for Benjamin. Forrest has a physical condition that makes fitting in with people his age very hard. What a surprise, so does Benjamin. Forrest leaves to find his way in the world. Benjamin does too. Both find their way back to the women they loved. In the end they are both burdened with a child. The difference between the two characters is Forrest acts with honor and Benjamin acts without any regard for anyone but himself.

Roth and Swicord created a character who should be gaining wisdom while looking younger but instead unravels his maturity as he ages. Then, out of nowhere, Ben isn't just uninteresting; he becomes a complete waste of humanity. It would be difficult to show a shallower depth of character than the writers did in TCCoBB. It is obvious that we are supposed to empathize, through dialogue manipulation, with Benjamin's decisions, but I wanted to put him in my Kitchen-Aid mixer with the paddle attachment and beat him like bread dough that won't rise.

I have not read F. Scott Fitzgerald's version, but if it follows the same basic plot line, he is as repugnant as the others. That's right, I'm not afraid to spit in the eye of a literary legend.

Kate Blanchet attempts to do ballet on screen. For a prima ballerina she doesn't have even a remedial understanding of the most beautiful, classical dance style. Is it too much to ask that a woman who is supposed to be a ballerina actually be a dancer or at least study dance enough to pass a three minute sequence. She is an insult to dance.

I felt like Roth, Swicord and director David Fincher tried to snow the audience with dialogue misdirection. They are nothing more than smarmy, unctuous, over-rated, used plot salesmen. Don't be caught under the suffocating avalanche that is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.