An ambitious but complete failure

Rating: Null/10 (1 February 2009)

To me, a film is more than just an excuse to eat popcorn and be entertained. A film is a chance to view the world through someone else's eyes, no matter how right or wrong, intelligent or unintelligent they may be, and if you look hard enough there are many life lessons to be learned. I have seen thousands of films, (that is in no way an exaggeration), own hundreds of films and love many of them, but if you had to ask me to pick favorites out of all films I have seen and own, David Fincher, the director of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button would definitely be part of the cream of the crop. In a tie for my favorite film of all time, it would be between Sidney Lumet's 1957 masterpiece 12 Angry Men and Fincher's masterwork Fight Club. Full of twists, subliminal messages that are noticeable after repeat viewings, excellent performances and a story that is undeniably unique, Fight Club is the next step in cinematic perfection that never fails to amaze whether it's the first viewing or the tenth. It is also arguably the only film I have seen where the screen adaptation was far better than the book, (yes, Fight Club was a novel long before it hit the big screen). So one would think the only man fit to adapt an old cherished yarn of a man born old who ages young would be Fincher. This is not so. It should be a crime that Fincher was even able to think about doing this film.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is based off of F. Scott Fitzergald's 1921 short story of the same name, which was roughly 60 pages long. I believe this is the essential mistake with this film. It takes a very short story and creates a film that is almost three hours long. It follows a man born physically like an old man, save for his height through his life. He appears as a baby but has the wrinkled skin, arthritis and the hairdo of a geriatric male at first and then begins to grow young. The story is intriguing at first, i.e. it will spark ones curiosity and the effects the technological wizard David Fincher uses are mind blowing. He manages to make Brad Pitt appear as an old 3-foot man flawlessly. You won't believe your eyes. Sadly that's mainly the only great thing in this ambitious but thoroughly flawed film.
The acting in Button is overall mediocre, save for Brad Pitt's performance, who becomes his character even without the technical wizardry, and earns the right for his Oscar nomination. Only Pitt's nomination and the visual effects nomination are worthy here (Button was nominated for 13 Oscars which effectively proves that the Oscars are a scam with all credibility now revoked in my book). Everyone else does their jobs to the bare minimum which would be okay with a better script, but that is where Button ultimately, and colossally fails.
Eric Roth, known mostly for his work with Button-like Forrest Gump and other critically acclaimed pictures like The Horse Whisperer, the Insider and Ali wrote Button's script but failed to realize the essential component of what makes Benjamin Button so curious and instead focuses on his experiences and not their meaning. He is also far too poetic. There is a great 5 minute scene in which button describes about ten different happenings during the day which add up to cause an accident in which Cate Blanchett's character is injured. It is very poetic and well done in every way; however, one can usually come to those obvious conclusions on their own and makes you realize the 5 minutes here are wasted much like the entire film is wasted. The 5 minutes could have been saved for some meaning if Benjamin had instead just said, "Daisy got hit by a car." It may look like an intelligent way of saying something but is ultimately pretentious and an insulting waste of time.
Overall Benjamin Button looks good, and seems very intriguing. Sadly, it should have stayed a short story. It is much too long at nearly three hours which feels like four, is unintelligent with its pseudo-philosophies that have been over explored already, (for better films in this genre see Forrest Gump and Into the Wild) and will either put you to sleep or drive you to suicide. Do not see this film. It is one of the worst films of 2008, (it is on par with the grotesque Strange Wilderness) and it wholly wastes the talents of Brad Pitt and David Fincher, and I have now lost all respect for Eric Roth and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, (the Oscars), which have now become one long commercial and a look at an extravagant life most of us could never dream of where multi-millionaires give each other high-fives and tell each other how awesome they are.