When the Baby Grows Up to Be an Old Man and Dies
Sort of like "Forrest Gump" run in reverse and without the laughs.
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" certain got a lot of attention when it came out in 2008. It got so much attention that it received three Oscars and is ranked in the IMDb Top 250--currently at #247. And, every bit a result, when I finally got around to seeing it, my expectations were way, way too loftier. I was expecting besides much, I am certain, as it'due south hard for a film to live up to all this hoopla. Now if I wait at the picture and try to ignore all these ridiculously loftier expectations, I see that it is indeed an exceptional film...merely maybe not quite the 'must-see' that I idea it was. I can't put my finger on it...it only didn't seem similar a film a cinema freak must watch...though information technology was a nice, gentle viewing experience. And, after seeing this and "Slumdog Millionaire", I tin can see why "Benjamin Button" didn't capture the Best Picture Oscar.
Probably the best way to describe this picture is like "Forrest Gump" run in reverse...and without the laughs or meetings with presidents and all the celebrity status. That's because although Benjamin SHOULD be earth famous for beingness the merely person to ever alive life backwards, curiously he isn't and people seem to almost have it in stride. In addition, and this part DID bother me, everyone's performance seemed way, manner, way too restrained. There were very, very few emotional highs in the film--and fifty-fifty those were curiously subdued. To me, that'southward what'southward curious about this "Curious Case"---why such an excellent moving picture pulled its emotional punches throughout the movie. Every bit a result, when it should accept been exciting, it wasn't...or not nearly enough. Still, it's well worth seeing...it has some lovely romantic elements and is a sugariness motion-picture show.
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Unusual, but touching and exquisitely filmed
I had wanted to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for a long time, I had heard people raving how amazing it was but others calling it overly-sentimental tripe. After seeing it myself, while information technology is not my all time favourite movie or a perfect picture by all ways, I am glad to have watched The Curious Example of Benjamin Push button. There are some parts where the motion-picture show is very boring, and information technology is probably too long as well. Also I do remember Se7en and Fight Society, as well directed by David Fincher were better movies.
That said, The Curious Instance of Benjamin Button is however an interesting, worthwhile and very good film on the joys of life, the sadness of expiry and a love that endures beyond time. It'southward concept is curious and unusual but is explored in a poignant and sensitive way. The screenplay does accept some honest moments, and the story is incredibly heartfelt and touching, I admit I was emotionally wrecked at the finish. Fincher's management once again is very impressive. To height all this, the film has exquisite visuals, seriously the cinematography is stunning, the scenery is sumptuous, the make upwards is superb and the costumes are gorgeous. And the score is breathtakingly cute, very hypnotic, soothing and haunting. Personally I really liked the interim, Brad Pitt while I do think he has given better performances is surprisingly touching in the title function. He plays the role with existent humanity and depth, and I didn't find his narration abrasive at all. Cate Blachett has also been amend, having been mesmerising in the Elizabeth movies and The Aviator, but she looks gorgeous in this film and acts as a very sympathetic time-crossed soul mate, and the 2 stars are conceivable together.
Overall, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is very skillful, non outstanding but I am glad I watched it. 8/10 Bethany Cox
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He "Youthens"
Other than F. Scott Fitzgerald's vivid clarification of how Benjamin Button has reversed the crumbling process in his life, there is aught of his the plot of his story. But the idea backside the updated version is every bit vivid as when he put it to newspaper.
When Fitzgerald published the story it was 1927 probably at the height of the jazz age and his creative powers. As he wrote it, Bnejamin Button was born after the Civil War and lived through World War I. But he lived backwards equally it were. In Camelot, King Arthur describes Merlin as not aging, but that he 'youthens'. That coined give-and-take describes simply what happens to Benjamin.
When he'southward born he comes out of the womb a petty old human being, something like yous might imagine Yoda if y'all can always imagine him as a kid. With all the usual problems of old age. But every bit he grows older chronologically, Benjamin loses all those infirmities gradually and gets younger and younger. Several actors play him before he finally morphs into Brad Pitt.
Which makes the accomplishment of director David Fancher all the more impressive. Although Brad Pitt was recognized with an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, the directing of several others nigh in tandem to play the same part at dissimilar stages is a great achievement. Too bad he didn't get the Oscar for that alone although Fancher was nominated besides.
In fact The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button got a flock of Oscar nominations including All-time Picture too every bit those mentioned. It won for Art&Set Management, Visual Effects, and in fact if it hadn't won for makeup the Oscars should have been picketted that yr.
Taraji Henson was likewise nominated for All-time Supporting Extra. When Benjamin is born and his mother dies giving him birth and his father abandons him, the caregiver who is black takes him in to raise in her large and extended family unit. Given both his physical condition and the circumstances of his babyhood, Benjamin had one unique perspective on life indeed. Henson is nothing short of fabulous in her portrayal.
Cate Blanchett who was overlooked in the Oscars for this part plays the woman whom he loves, but who is working her way up in physical age while Pitt is working down. The film is seen from both her's and his perspective every bit she tells her girl to read from this diary that Benjamin kept. When they met at the middle though as Benjamin ran the bases backward through life, there love was existent and really physical.
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is a remarkable achievement that gave some career roles to some fine players.
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The Curious Case of an Oddly Unappealing Film
David Fincher has fabricated some of the most interesting films of the final two decades, including SE7EN and FIGHT CLUB, both favourites of mine. The last moving-picture show of his I saw was the overlong but engaging ZODIAC, so I sabbatum downwards for some other ballsy-length characteristic film and hoped for genuine quality. Like and then many Hollywood films, BENJAMIN BUTTON looks amazing. The technical aspects are top dollar and Fincher's direction is difficult to criticise on a superficial level. Why is watching information technology, so, such a hollow experience? The reason is down to the story, which starts off with an interesting premise and does nothing with it. Button is a guy who ages in opposite, merely cipher is fabricated of his condition. He doesn't live his life any differently, he doesn't go a medical anomaly, barely anyone passes comment on it at all. Why is information technology fifty-fifty function of the film? I almost feel like a screenplay was written around a totally uninteresting grapheme, then, realising the lack of depth, the author decided 'oh, I'll have him historic period in reverse' in an endeavor to make things more interesting.
Button turns out to be a singularly unappealing guy, one to whom adultery is a style of life, a guy who refuses to engage with the earth he lives in and who shirks responsibleness at every stage. Pitt plays him the best he can, but fifty-fifty he can't brand the guy likable. You lot end upwards watching just to discover out the next stage of the admittedly impressive SFX work used to both age him and make him younger.
Elsewhere, Fincher casts 2 of the coldest female actresses I can think of: Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton. I can't think of a unmarried moving-picture show in which either displays any kind of warmth, and at that place's none on offering here. Don't go looking for chemical science, either, as you lot won't detect information technology. Combined with Fincher's clinical and detached approach, this is a yawn-inducing, uneventful, not-dramatic exercise in tedium and a massive missed opportunity.
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Magical
Curious Case of Benjamin Push button, The (2008)
**** (out of four)
David Fincher'southward latest tells the story of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), a man who ages backwards with various consequences throughout his life. If Forrest Gump was almost a uncomplicated man doing boggling things so Button is a extraordinary man doing simple things. This was the last of the five Best Picture nominees for me to watch and I must admit that going into the film the entire storyline left me rather skeptical to say the least. I really wasn't sure what to expect since the film sounded like Forrest Gump two and while the two films share a lot in common this one here is remarkable enough on its own to actually pack a terrific punch. Button doesn't do anything overly special in his life except live and fall in love and these elementary things are what makes the film and so memorable. Clocking in at close to three-hours I must say that I hoped the movie would keep going every bit not once did it feel overlong or as if the story was running out of things to say. I think the nigh interesting affair is that manager Fincher actually paces the film in a manner to where the viewer tin can see Push button's life unfold but at the same time have the viewer wonder what they would accept washed under the same circumstances. The way Button learns to alive and love makes for plenty of great drama as well as plenty of laughs but that the same time information technology's quite remarkable at how touching and uplifting all of it is. The special furnishings in the moving-picture show are as well quite remarkable because there never have away from the story that'south going on. The are diverse effects being used with the CGI looking great in recapturing the look of the 1920'due south and 1930'due south. The real special effects come in how they become Pitt to await like a child, an old man and back to a kid. The visual furnishings used here, and I'd be lying if I said I understood them, are quite remarkable to look at but again, what's nigh remarkable is that they don't take you out of the story. A lot of credit likewise has to go to Pitt who turns in another great performances. One can only imagine what was going through his head as he tried to come up with the various emotions that would go into a role like this. I hateful seriously, how does one set up to have the body of a 80-year-old man but the mind of a baby? Is there some special course to take about having the brain of an fourscore-year-old nonetheless the trunk of an infant? Pitt nails everything his character goes through and that includes the terrific vocal piece of work that he must tackle throughout the film. The supporting players, Julia Ormond, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton and Taraji P. Henson all evangelize fantabulous supporting work merely there's no question that the film belongs to Pitt. Some might balk at the picture maxim life doesn't work this mode and perhaps that's truthful but a lot of the moving picture is a fantasy but one written and so close to human nature that it's not difficult to imagine what you meet is fix in a reality. If I could take changed anything about the film information technology would accept been how the story is told as Blanchett's graphic symbol is on her death bed going back through a diary of Button's. I think the story could have been told straight but this is just a minor event. When the credits finally started I couldn't aid simply feel incredibly moved past what I had just seen and this is certainly one of the twelvemonth's best.
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Fascinating but not the almost compelling
On her expiry bed, Daisy (Cate Blanchett) recounts the story of blind clockmaker Mr Gateau to her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond). In 1918, Mr Gateau fabricated the railroad train station clock that runs backwards to commemorate his son as well as countless other lost in the peachy war. Daisy asks Caroline to read the diary of Benjamin Push (Brad Pitt). He was born on the night when WWI ended. His female parent died in childbirth. He was born horribly old and his begetter almost threw him into the waters. He is left on the doorstep of Miss Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) who ran an sometime age abode. Equally he ages, he appears younger and younger.
Director David Fincher has created a fable. It'southward darn interesting, but I tin't say it's a compelling spotter. Information technology's fascinating without being heady. It has very petty tension or suspense. The workmanship is splendid, just the slow pace really tests anybody's endurance. It's a marvel of engineering science to see Brad Pitt in BB's every incarnation. But information technology takes too long to get to the heart of the movie which is the romance with Daisy. Besides the age divergence in their advent make the romance kind of awkward. I think it would be ameliorate for them to run across at a after date, and start the flick then. The motion-picture show is basically one large flashback. I recall the motion picture should flashback to his childhood only every bit needed. Take away the opposite aging, this is a movie about a long winding life. Information technology'southward a footling as well long and too winding for my taste.
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Intriguing Premise, Only...
This movie is a visual feast. It is lush with the images of America in all its incarnations from the early 20th Century. I agree with Roger Ebert that the premise is likewise the thing that short circuits the pic. In one case Benjamin comes to realize what is happening to him, he now has to play past a prepare of rules that are not of his ain making. All relationships of whatsoever substance are clouded by his fate. Even taking the premise about living in the here and at present considering we all somewhen run into our end, doesn't assist me. The sadness that hangs over the entire movie (which is awfully long for drama), with all of the implications of outliving virtually everyone, make it a hard sell.
Even with all of that, I idea there were wonderful performances by merely nigh everyone. I am a swell Brad Pitt fan and felt that he was masterful in his performance. I was pleased that the transitioning of his existence wasn't accelerated. The gradual move back to his youth is subtle and the make-upward and special effects people are to exist congratulated. They also integrate his mental vigil with his physical change. I could go on. I but believe that this is a adept, engaging moving picture, simply it was doomed somewhat from the start.
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its splendid simplicity
a strange thing -to assume a not comfortable text for give to information technology new nuances. to chose the correct actors. to transport profound emotions who determine ignoring of make up and CGI. considering the great virtue of picture show is the simplicity of story. zero strange. null complicated. only a confession about essence of life. nearly a love story. well-nigh the struggle against time. it is a beautiful moving picture for the manner to tell the story equally to find a river. repose is the bones notation. emotion is the obvious upshot. Brad Pitt remains, scene by scene, a revelation because he seems be part of his role , more than interpreter of it. he does more than a good task - he gives the perfect translation of solitude, joy, expectations and hope , perfect style for define Benjamin Button as reflection of the viewer. a film who impress. for its admirable simplicity.
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Intriguing and Unique
In New Orleans, while in her deathbed, the elder Daisy (Cate Blanchett) asks her girl Caroline (Julia Ormond) to read the periodical of Benjamin Push (Brad Pitt) for her. Caroline reads the fascinating story of a human being that was born a diseased one-time human on the day that the Showtime World War concluded; abandoned by his desperate father Thomas Button (Jason Flemyng) in an asylum for elders and raised as a son by the blackness caregiver Queenie (Taraji P. Henson). While aging backwards, Benjamin meets the girl Daisy and they become friends; and then he works as a sailor in the towboat Chelsea and travels through the world, participating of the World State of war II later on the attack to Pearl Harbor; finds dear with Mrs. Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton) and returns to New Orleans, when he meets his biological male parent and Daisy, who is working as ballerina in New York until he finally dies as a infant. While reading the diary, Caroline discloses a secret near her family unit.
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Push button" is 1 of the well-nigh intriguing movies ever. The original story is supported by an interesting and curious screenplay that discloses the whole life of Benjamin Button and a stunning direction of David Fincher. The cast is magnificent, and information technology is non easy to highlight an private performance (I loved Cate Blanchett), supported by magnificent cinematography and make-upward. Surprisingly there are bad reviews of this film that I recommend for those viewers that seeks a jewel that is unique. My vote is nine.
Title (Brazil): "O Curioso Caso de Benjamin Button" ("The Curious Example of Benjamin Push button")
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Technically impressive but the weaknesses in the material makes it a "skilful" picture show – non the great one that everyone is suggesting
Daisy has been on her deathbed for quite some time and her daughter Julia is determined to exist at that place as she leaves this world. Equally they sit together, Daisy asks Julia to read from her from the diary, postcards and letters of Benjamin Button, a man she had known her whole life. His life begins by beingness abandoned by his male parent on the doorstep of an one-time people'south home where he is taken in and pitied for appearing to exist older than many of those at the end of their life. Then it continues every bit the child Benjamin starts his life as an one-time man simply appears to be younger physically as he ages. His story tells of love and loss, state of war and peace, life and decease.
Benjamin Push button comes to the UK on a wave of Oscar hype and nominations and many critics here have given information technology an unquestioning five out of five stars and lavished praise on it. Of course I was keen to see it and went to come across a preview equally soon equally I could – not expecting brilliance but simply out of interest to see the film that is wowing them. The truth most the film is equally to be expected these days most many "big" films, which is that it doesn't really deliver on all the things you hear almost it. Fortunately this is not a tedious summertime blockbuster that had all the money shots in the trailer and Benjamin Button is an engaging and enjoyable movie – it is just not the "soul-filling" "visionary piece" or "modern classic" that some accept hailed it equally. In the wide story of a man's life, the film is engaging and has plenty going on – as others have said the film doesn't feel as long as information technology is and in essence I was interested in what was happening and what was going to happen.
The problem is that I was rarely that interested in what had happened and I didn't really feel myself being that engaged past the lives I was watching. In a way this is a positive thing because the film doesn't e'er go for the easy emotions and it stays away from the sweeping musical scores and g emotion that some directors would take milked as difficult and as often as possible. This restraint is to Fincher'southward credit as it creates a more adult and worthy experience as opposed to the feel of someone frantically pushing "cry" or "laugh" buttons but it does leave me with the problem that I ended the pic feeling like I had watched a "nice" picture show – not a great one. Inside the context of the narrative, the ageing backwards concept didn't produce what I would have liked. Here and at that place information technology gave me pause for thought due to putting a slightly dissimilar spin on a common state of affairs just I'1000 not sure how much I was doing versus the moving-picture show. Outside of the odd moment, the film follows birth to death and the direction of ageing isn't really that of import in terms of the story being told, it makes it feel unusual sure, but doesn't actually deliver much with it. I was looking for a new perspective on things, something to justify the concept merely it never actually came. What this left me with was an OK film and I am left looking on at those weeping and proclaiming it to be i of the finest films e'er and wondering, really, what am I missing? Technically I accept no qualms with the film considering the special effects are and so expert that you lot barely notice them. The "old man" effects are one thing simply information technology is actually impressive to see Pitt looking younger than I've ever seen him merely even so unmistakably be Brad Pitt. This is true of the whole film as information technology simply feels pretty existent, whether information technology exist the "prove slice" effects or just the mode everything convinces as being of the period. Indeed in this area the moving-picture show excels and I recall it deserves the many technical etc Oscars I'm sure it will choice up. The performances are adept but perhaps not quite as heartfelt every bit I would take liked. I do not mean I needed them to be obvious or weeping at the driblet of a lid but they didn't take equally much inside consistently as I wanted. Pitt is solid and has easy charisma but I didn't experience for him, I didn't think he put anything into his character's heart as a outcome of ageing backwards. Likewise Blanchett was only strong in a few specific scenes and didn't have much to work with beyond that. The support cast are good though as we have turns from Ormound, Flemyng, Henson, Swinton, Koteas and others all doing solid work.
So perhaps it is but me. I suspect I will have the votes and the PM's to clinch me how wrong I am but I cannot see this film equally being more that "pretty good". No matter how impressive the applied science is or how interesting the concept is, it merely doesn't have plenty about it in the material to really exist engaging, insightful or particularly moving. It is in no way "bad" – I liked it and time moved quickly despite the length only it is just at present the classic that many are calling information technology. A good film that could and should have been much better – don't look more than that.
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Backwards
On a technical level this movie is amazing. David Fincher tries new boundaries and he succeeds. I haven't seen the making of notwithstanding, but people accept told me about some things, that they take seen and it sounds amazing.
Unfortunately I don't feel as "touched" past the complete story. It does take a strong get-go and the acting is great. But at the end it seems more than like $.25 and parts and non as a whole movie experience. Of form that symbolizes our life as it is (likewise bits and pieces and many different chapters, with different characters in them). But although I practise similar this attribute, I feel there could've been more.
Peradventure Mr. Fincher spoiled us with the movies he makes and I expected more. But whatever it is and although I do like the movie, I couldn't bear to requite it more than seven/10 (which isn't bad at all in my book either).
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"You never know what's coming for you."
Warning: Spoilers
I think this pic works equally an example of how ordinary human beings can practice boggling things when they take 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 split means. 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 immature man over fourth dimension, and it seemed to me that he could accept 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 merely a small kid and he was however in his thirties. So that part of the story I remember 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 past a black woman (Taraji P. Henson) who he considered his Mama. Interjecting the story with those humorous moments of the vii times lightning homo was besides quite brilliant, lending some welcome comic relief moments to a story that tended to get somber at times.
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I am curious elderly
"The Curious Example of Benjamin Button" left me with mixed impressions. Brad Pitt's role as a man crumbling in contrary poses the questions of mortality and lost love. I got the feeling that the idea of Benjamin's approaching his eventual passing mirrored the hospital scenes as Hurricane Katrina bears down on New Orleans, leading to the devastation of the Crescent City and the finish of its festive reputation. The idea that Benjamin starts out looking onetime, rejuvenates to the bespeak of looking middle-aged, and ends up looking like a babe makes me think of something else. There'southward a certain menses of his life where Benjamin can lead a normal existence, due to looking his age. Meanwhile, he has to spend both his youth and old age in nursing homes. He ends exactly as he started. Maybe the implication is that old age is, in a mode, a render to childhood.
Every bit for the story itself, I judge that information technology didn't print me as much as it could accept, just since it seemed similar to "Forrest Gump" and "The World According to Garp", and also "Youth without Youth", most an elderly man who gets struck by lightning and starts aging backwards.
Overall, I recommend the film, although it's not one that I would have idea to nominate for Best Motion-picture show. Besides starring Cate Blanchett, Taraji Henson, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Jared Harris, Elias Koteas and Tilda Swinton.
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A Classic Tale Adapted For the Mod World
At the shut of the starting time Wold War, a kid is born... Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), who extraordinarily happens to exist physically almost lxx years old despite having a child-size body. Throughout his life, he grows younger rather than older.
David Fincher only keeps growing as a manager. While I'chiliad very partial to his earlier, darker work ("Seven", "Alien three", etc.) his latest projects just continue to amaze with his unique sensibility and with a wonderful bandage of friends and coiffure.
There's really nix bad that tin be said about this film. The original story took place near sixty years earlier, but y'all would never know that... the screenwriter was then careful to brand a new story while still respecting the old concept. I think F. Scott Fitzgerald would have approved.
Brad Pitt was wonderful every bit e'er (here'south another person who grows all the time), Cate Blanchett was enjoyable, Tilda Swinton was tolerable (I don't by and large like her) and we had some overnice supporting roles filled by the likes of Elias Koteas. It'due south no wonder this picture show is in the top 250 on IMDb equally of this writing.
I take to give special credit to the CGI crew. While I am not by and large a fan, they did a nifty job. The "erstwhile" Pitt was decent, just I was actually impressed with the younger Pitt. He was "Thelma and Louise" young all over again...
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Warning: Spoilers
From Oscar, BAFTA and Gilded Globe nominated director David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room), I only heard of this film when the Oscars were coming up, and it did audio quite an original idea. Basically elderly Daisy Williams/Fuller is on her deathbed in hospital, and her girl Caroline (Outset Knight's Julia Ormond) reads aloud the diary of a man named Benjamin. In a series of flashbacks, we run across Benjamin born (with his mother dying in the process), and abandoned by biological begetter Thomas (Jason Flemyng). He was born in near bizarre circumstances, throughout his life growing up, he is ageing backwards. And then as a baby he was born in his 80's, and every bit he grows, he looks older than he actually is. He was raised by seniors abode carer Queenie (Oscar nominated Taraji P. Henson) who constitute him, and living their he as well meets the girl who volition later on become his love, Daisy of form. At present a fully grown homo, nonetheless looking older than his real age, Benjamin (Oscar, BAFTA and Golden World nominated Brad Pitt) goes to work on a tugboat, has an affair with older, married Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton), goes through the Pearl Harbor attack, and eventually returns home to meet his revealed father. He is likewise reunited with a grown Daisy (Cate Blanchett), their love blossoms, they move in together, and of course as Daisy looks older, Benjamin looks younger. Information technology is when Daisy has a baby that he feels it is not fair to have a man like him equally a father, so he leaves. He only returns to meet Daisy married to some other homo, and his daughter Caroline grown upward, and eventually he returns to the senior domicile to be cared for by Queenie, and Daisy, as we come across him shrinking to child size, suffering dementia, until dying looking like a baby, and of course, back in the present, old Daisy dies. Also starring Elias Koteas equally Monsieur Gateau and Josh Stewart every bit Pleasant Curtis. This is a very intriguing and at times emotional idea for the lifespan of a grapheme, a existent change of style and tone for director Fincher, and with superb CGI and make-up effects giving united states this journeying it is a unique feeling film experience. It won the Oscars for Best Art Management, Best Makeup and All-time Visual Effects, and it was nominated for All-time Cinematography, All-time Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Music, Original Score for Alexandre Desplat, Best Sound, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Cloth Previously Produced or Published and All-time Motion Flick of the Twelvemonth, information technology won the BAFTAs for All-time Make Upwards & Pilus, Best Production Pattern and Best Special Visual Effects, and it was nominated for All-time Cinematography, Best Costume Design, All-time Editing, All-time Music, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film, and it was nominated the Aureate Globes for Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Original Score and Best Screenplay. Cate Blanchett was number 37, and Brad Pitt number 15 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, Pitt was also number five on The 100 Greatest Sex Symbols, he number 52 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons, and he was number 30 The World's Greatest Actors. Very good!
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A Life Course With A Twist.
Warning: Spoilers
A sweet sentimental tale of a human, Brad Pitt as Benjamin Push, who is born in 1918 New Orleans equally a atomic and withered former man and dies in the 1970s equally an infant suffering from dementia. Actually, Benjamin Button is not only Brad Pitt, simply is played past Peter Badalamenti at the historic period of around ten, and by Robert Towers every bit a slightly older teen-aged Benjamin Push button. The casting is marvelous. Then is the makeup. It took me some time to realize that the ghostly pale, withered figure, the ancient lady wheezing out a few hoarse words and dying in the hospital bed, was Cate Blanchett.
It's hard to resist the story. Benjamin Button is an appealing character, soft spoken, honest, and polite. He speaks little and acts mostly equally an observer of everyday life in New Orleans, with occasional visits to Murmansk, New York, Paris, and other far-abroad-place with strange sounding names. It'south a very Southern movie in many respects, slow, like Button himself, contrasting the tranquility, colorful characters of New Orleans with the rambunctious snobbery of the New York ballet prepare, the sterility of Paris's hospital room, and the danger and mortality of Russian federation. But, insallah, we do not come across a Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but the patient, gracious audio of a ragtime piece played on the accordingly named pianoforte. Nosotros only hear a few notes of the ragtime and they're played merely and slowly, like the film itself. The overscore traces the plot with fairy tale harps and celeste.
The performances are pretty good all around. Cate Blanchett, of course, is unforgettable -- a fine actress with the most memorable olfactory organ in today's movies. Brad Pitt, I didn't care for earlier in his career, another hunk for teens to swoon over, showing his behind likewise as the balance of his jacked upwards body in "Troy." Merely I've come to appreciate his range later comparing his recedent personality here with his maniacal psychopath in "Kalifornia." Julia Ormond doesn't have much to do as the daughter of Pitt and Blanchett.
It's an engaging movie -- I couldn't get away from it -- and the photography and lighting are exceptionally good but I had a trouble with the plot. It's a tear jerker. The affair is laid out similar an obstacle course. Brief moments of happiness, fame, success are inevitably followed by tragedy. Benjamin Button is a little like Hercule Poirot. When he's effectually, somebody is going to die, except that, to ratchet up the sentiment quotient, the person who dies must be someone that Button loves or has learned to respect. One by one, his family unit and friends disappear, usually because of some unnamed disease, every bit Ali McGraw did in "Love Story." Pitt is given lines that reflect his great insight, such equally, "Yous tin can expletive the fates; you tin become round the moon; merely when the terminate comes y'all accept to permit go." The centerpiece of the tale is the human relationship between Blanchett, who ages from a ten-year-one-time girl to a dying old woman, and Pitt, who ages from a sepulchral old human being to a dying footling babe. That especially relationship is nicely structured. Blanchett and Pitt take their happiest moments in mid life when they are both the same historic period. It dampens the manipulative effect of all those unending tragedies.
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As Time Goes Past
I found this to be an interesting moving picture; certainly not deadening as I had heard from a few people who saw information technology in the theater. To me, information technology was but proficient storytelling.
Aye, it'southward slow, especially past today'south movie standards, simply it's certainly a unique story and it'south nicely filmed, acted and directed. Story-wise, it's one of those films I understand if people dearest it or hate it. I'm somewhat in the middle and leaning toward the positive.
For a movie that runs for over 2 hours and forty minutes and is not some suspense or action film, it has to be pretty good to hold 1's interest. I can merely speak for myself; it held my interest for 95 percentage of it.
I think the get-go two-thirds of the movie is the all-time. Brad Pitt as "Benjamin Button" is pretty fascinating, as is the story of him growing upwardly from a wrinkled, former man-baby to a mid-40s guy. When he re-unites with childhood friend "Daisy" (Cate Blanchett) and becomes her lover, the film bogs down in a few spots but few people are going to end watching after investing 2 hours. It picks upwards again, peculiarly in the last minutes when "Benjamin" begins to finally become younger than an adult.
At that place's a sadness to this story, specially near the end merely overall, fifty-fifty though it'south key theme seems to exist "decease," I don't think it's a depressing flick. It does remind us, in a big way, that the longer we're around, the more death of friends and loved ones we witness. That's but a sad fact of life. I hear about information technology all fourth dimension with my father, who is 91 years former and has seen almost all of his friends die.
It's especially true in this story when Benjamin starts off and has a lot of old friends to begin with! "Benjamin" was an odd person to me; you could root for him, nonetheless not admire him. He often treated people only to satisfy his desires and could have been so much more than. Even so, being "a fly on the wall" and observing his interesting life, was memorable, making this a movie worthy of the time invested to watch it.
In the end, the movie made me appreciate the friends I do have, and not to accept any of them for granted as life passes us by and so fast, no matter what direction we're headed!
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A touching and memorable motion-picture show with intimate emotion , sensitivity and enjoyable dramatic scenes
This over-the-pinnacle tale results to be a maudlin and ambrosial motion-picture show with emotion , deep feeling , romances and and intense drama . This moving picture opens up with an old woman is struggling to speak and her daughter (Julia Ormond) is at her bedside . Benjamin Button, a rare infant that was born looking similar an old man , is taken in by a nurse at an onetime folks home . Benjamin was raised by Queenie (Taraji P. Hensen) , an African-American woman and caregiver at a seniors home. Over the years equally the weird Benjamin (Brad Pitt) got "older" he appeared to get younger. As the strange Benjamin lives at the habitation, he meets Daisy (Elle Fanning, and , grown-upwardly : Cate Blanchett) , a beautiful young girl the aforementioned age . He falls in love with her , knowing the relationship will always look strange . Life isn't measured in minutes, but in moments . "I was born nether unusual circumstances". Life can only be understood backward. It must be lived frontwards. Time is passing, even backwards.
Enjoyable and bonny movie with sensitive scenes , proficient feeling , agreeable set pieces , sense of style and abundant backstories filled with flashbacks . This excellent movie is perfectly performed by a magnificent plethora of actors playing interesting roles , based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald and script by Eric Roth . Being paced in expert sense , sensibility and with plenty of emotion . Compellingly performed by a squeamish main and support bandage , containing several engaging happenings , love stories , plot twists , turns , intense drama and tragic events in which relationships begin and end . This ane turns out to exist a not bad soap that depicts a fictitious biography of a fantastic human beingness and information technology deserves to be renewed for its big-proper name-cast . Stars Brad Pitt giving a terrific interim equally Benjamin Button, a man who starts aging backwards with weird consequences . Forth with Cate Blanchet who's fabled as Daisy falling for Benjamin and remaining in contact throughout their lives, as well as Taraji P Hensen as his proficient , dear mother . And a large number of secondaries , continuing out the post-obit ones : Jared Harris , Jason Flemyng , Tilda Swinton , Mahershala Ali , Julia Ormond , Elias Koteas, Tom Everett , Josh Stewart , Elle Fanning , amidst others.
Displaying a stirring and sensitive musical score by not bad composer Alexandre Desplat . Equally , a colorful and evocative cinematography past Claudio Miranda , as photography has low-key lighting with green or blueish tinted colour temperature . This charming and sentimental motion-picture show was competently directed by David Fincher , though it results to be overlong . David has directed vii actors in Oscar nominated performances: Brad Pitt, Taraji P. Henson, Jesse Eisenberg, Rooney Mara,Rosamund Pike, Gary Oldman, and Amanda Seyfried. Fincher has shot Boob tube commercials for clients that include Nike, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Heineken, Pepsi, Levi'south, Converse, AT&T and Chanel. He has directed music videos for Madonna, Sting, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, George Michael, Iggy Pop, The Wallflowers, Billy Idol, Steve Winwood, The Motels and, well-nigh recently, A Perfect Circle. Every bit a film managing director, he has accomplished huge success with Seven (1995), Fight Society (1999) , Panic Room (2002) , Zodiac (2007) , The Social Network (2010) , The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) , Gone Girl (2014) . Rating : 7.5/10. Meliorate than boilerplate. The picture will appeal to Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett fans . Well worth watching.
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Interesting story...
This is a very different story and it was well put to the screen past managing director Daving Fincher. And information technology was also nicely filmed and edited. Just a picture show is only so much without talented actors, and it should be said that "The Curious Example of Benjamin Buttons" has some really talented stars on the cast list.
And the storyline is unique, equally we follow the life of Benjamin Buttons, who is born as an lxxx year onetime man and grows younger with the passing of years; essentially aging in reverse.
The story spans over many events, both historical and personal to Benjamin Buttons. Only everything was presented in a very stylish manner, and the various ages and locations were very realistic and believable.
A very impressive bandage list brought this cute story to life on the screen, including names such as Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Elias Koteas and Jason Flemyng.
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons" is definitely a movie well-worth watching for its storyline, merely also for the good acting performances.
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Unique story, done very nicely, and Brad Pitt is superb.
Warning: Spoilers
When one looks at the several thou movies each ane of us is exposed to very few of them take really unique ideas in them. I tin chop-chop recollect of "Beingness John Malkovich", "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", "Groundog 24-hour interval", "Pleasantville" ... all unique and fine movies.
"Benjamin Push button" falls in that category. This one unique private, born in 1918, starts out with all the symptoms of erstwhile age, a very small person with a body about to vesture out, and as time goes past he grows but ages backward. He gets younger and healthier as he gets older. Brad Pitt is Benjamin Push.
Meanwhile Cate Blanchett every bit Daisy is in modernistic times on her deathbed, but she met Benjamin when she was maybe 6 and he was maybe 12. Daisy and Benjamin were always destined to be in each others' lives forever, but how would that really piece of work? When she was a small girl he appeared to be an old man. When they were in their 40s they appeared to exist at about the same points in their lives.
The 3rd key character is Julia Ormond as Caroline, Daisy's daughter at her bedside, in New Orleans, as hurricane Katrina was budgeted.
The flick is a bit long, at 2.5 hours, but it never gets dull and the fourth dimension passes nicely. We saw information technology on DVD and took a 10-minute break somewhere past one-half-way. But a fine, different, superb picture show.
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not much to say
I don't take too much to say well-nigh this film, except that it was one of the well-nigh beautiful, touching, poignant, and bittersweet films I accept ever seen.
Benjamin Push lives his life in reverse. Despite this, information technology'due south a not bad life, total of hazard and love and learning. He finds out that no thing what, it's the people who make life and so special.
The pic is beautifully photographed and truthful to the periods it represents.
Brad Pitt is fantastic, and those CGI and makeup techniques for him and the rest of the cast are marvelous. It's a tribute to the picture show that it's very organic to the bandage so nosotros are not aware of makeup and CGI. Cate Blanchett is incredible; she is a dying, old woman in the starting time and gives a tremendous operation.
We're born helpless and without life memories, and some of usa die that way. In a way, I gauge, it doesn't matter if yous're born old or die sometime - it's similar Benjamin tells Cate Blanchett in the picture, you'd withal finish upward where you are now. The life experience, the people you come across, the wisdom you acquire, all happens -- and it happened to Benjamin at a time when he could actually value it. But as he points out: "For what it'south worth: it'southward never also late or, in my example, too early on to be whoever y'all desire to be. There'south no time limit, stop whenever you desire. You can alter or stay the same, in that location are no rules to this thing. We can brand the all-time or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it."
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A story of a man's life, told backwards, with both lots of skilful and some not-so-good at all
Warning: Spoilers
David Fincher is a truly gifted storyteller, probably ane of the virtually talented and inspired that take come up from that much hallowed historic period-group of early 1960s built-in American filmmakers (i.east. Soderbergh, Tarantino, Linklater) that rose to prominence in the 1990s with their groundbreaking work. It's a shame then that ane year subsequently directing a movie like Zodiac, where with a 157 minute running fourth dimension (almost the same as this film) non a infinitesimal was wasted, he should take a film like The Curious Instance of Benjamin Push: filled with so much promise, delivering in some vivid bits, it'south overloaded with a detail storytelling device that flat out doesn't work and doesn't help mask what also doesn't work in the actual story itself.
I say this admiring this motion picture, admiring Fincher'southward work, the cinematographer immensely, the make-up artists and especially the visual fx crew (who, by leaps and premises, should go the Oscar this twelvemonth if it means much in those circles), in criticizing it heavily. This is i of those pictures one *wants* to work wonderfully so much that its swollen length is the cause of a central problem: the script. While not entirely the fault of co-adapter of Fitzgerald's story equally a quasi-remake of Forrest Gump (the similarities are many, too many for here to note), the framing device used to wrap the story of Benjamin Button around - his story told from a diary he wrote read by his daughter (I'll go to that later) to her female parent Daisy, who lies dying in a infirmary bed in the middle of an oncoming hurricane (also get to this later) - is relentless and pointlessly repetitive. Imagine how annoying it would have been if Winona Ryder's onetime-lady version of her character from Edward Scissorhands kept popping upward to tell the story and you'll go the thought of how information technology a) simply is mundanely acted overwrought past Blanchett and Ormond, and b) information technology doesn't progress the story save for one or two of the wink-forwards.
And as for the actual story of Benjamin Button, built-in on the dark of the end of World War 1 as a baby aged 90 years old and aging backwards until he'southward a trivial boy with former-man dementia and Alzheimer's? It is, as you watch it, pretty entertaining, at best engrossing, and provides the viewer with so many rich ideas that are merely followed upon a couple of times. Push button lives a fairly uncomplicated life for someone who should be, past the await of the trailer, to accept something extraordinary happen: he becomes a sailor when he turns 17, he sails the world bit, befriends and has an matter with a Brit (Swinton), does some modest gainsay duty in the Navy in WW2, and so has an on-off once more relationship with Daisy, and and then that is mostly the rest of the film.
Similar in Forrest Gump, to brand a quick comparison, Push has some of that whimsical fortune put upon him, brought on by a slightly deplorable circumstance: instead of Gump becoming a shrimp boat captain by a promise of a expressionless war-buddy, Button is abandoned by a father who runs a big Button-making corporation (Button's Buttons, beautiful, huh?), to which Benjamin is the sole heir. Only, we don't see him work at the factory, he sells it at one point for extra cash, and it doesn't have much prominence in the story. Maybe Roth or Fincher or whomever idea buttons wouldn't exist very interesting to the story. But, hey, why non try it? This is a instance where the parts are improve than the whole, if not greater.
Some sequences are brilliant, really wonderful, like Benjamin'southward explanation of all the clockwork-blazon of events that atomic number 82 up to one of those life-changing accidents for Daisy, or when we see Benjamin walk for the first fourth dimension, or fifty-fifty simply simple things like $.25 of montages. It too goes without saying it's a technical marvel, every bit mentioned, and is gorgeous to look at - but equally, I should add together, it'due south two stars, who requite very good performances (albeit non every bit good as Jesse James or Bob Dylan last year respectively), as people who take to cope with crumbling with each other, and have to grapple with death and the lingering sense of oncoming loss that leads to a decision three/iv of the way through the picture that should be amend handled, only isn't.
The manner I'yard describing it, from the daughter 'twist' that shouldn't be one at all and is handled like i of those mean contrivances in movies that is unbecoming of a production like this let alone Fincher's, or the Katrina angle (which I wager was Brad Pitt'south idea, noble simply out of place), or just little things in the story that don't work, yous'd think I would rate this lower. But it is a kind of flawed curiosity, a work of mainstream movie art that is tainted past an backlog of unnecessary storytelling in a film that requires that it exist strong throughout. It takes a lot of guts to pull off a movie like this, and I'one thousand glad Fincher made information technology. That it's not something I'd sentry ever once more from start to stop goes without saying.
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button provided a unique operation from Brad Pitt
tavm 29 Dec 2008
While my friend wanted to watch this motion picture considering he's a big fan of Brad Pitt, I was just more interested in the premise and the fact it was shot in my neighboring city of New Orleans whose scenery is breathtaking here (the fact that present scenes are gear up during Hurricane Katrina was also a fine dramatic touch). Pitt is quite touching as a human aging backwards in time and I loved the romantic scenes with both Tilda Swinton as the middle-anile wife of a spy and Cate Blanchett as his childhood friend Daisy especially her dancing scenes. Those scenes on the tug boat with that tattoo captain were too good especially the wartime sequences. If there's one quibble, information technology's that I didn't see enough of Queenie'southward girl to actually discern how she got along with either her female parent or her brother Ben. Otherwise, this was a fine piece of work from director David Fincher and screenwriter Eric Roth who mined similar adapted territory when he previously worked on Wood Gump.
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A very interesting idea but leaves so much out
Alarm: Spoilers
I think the idea of a man being born old and growing upwardly while his body becomes younger is pretty skilful. I would love if this would take happened to me! Yet it seems that with this brilliant idea and incredibly long moving picture they could take done more than they did.
The main office of the flick is the human relationship between Daisy and Benjamin. And both actors practice amazing job. While the make up for this motion picture is stunning, this is not the only thing that makes Benjamin Buttons bully, Brad Pitt's acting is a function of it. And so is Cate Blanchett.
There are some cute scenes betwixt them. Nonetheless I don't get some things. I somehow can't believe that he loved her since he left her with the child. The reason doesn't make sense to me. Why would Daisy have to "Enhance both of them"? He was an developed in a young body, how does this end him from being a father more growing old in a normal style? By the fourth dimension he was a teenager with dementia she was already grown upwards and her footstep begetter dead. He could have perfectly spent all the years with the adult female he supposedly loved and his child.
Merely perchance this is the signal of the movie? Maybe this is also the reason for Tilda Swinton's character. We see that she ends up fulfilling her dream. Information technology was non likewise late for her even though she didn't exercise it at a young age. And he didn't. He left what could have fabricated his life happier. Even though her body was getting old while his was going the other way.
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Dorian Greyness With A Life-Curious Example ****
Alarm: Spoilers
As far every bit I'1000 concerned, "The Curious Instance of Benjamin Button" was more than like Dorian Grey having a positive life.
With his life in reverse, Brad Pitt, who played Benjamin, did an excellent job of carrying the problems of beingness built-in elderly merely progressing through the years as a younger human. In the cease, he has had a fulfilled life, but has to suffer the indignities of dementia as a young lad.
The make-up artist for Mr. Pitt certainly deserved some sort of accolade, especially in his work with Pitt every bit an older human.
A dying woman conveys the story to her daughter via a diary, and the young girl learns that Pitt was her father.
In that location are other excellent performances by Cate Blanchett, as the woman who loved him dearly, and Taranji Henson, as the black woman who took him in and raised him in his "elderly" years.
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Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421715/reviews
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