I life worth forgetting

Rating: 1/10 (10 February 2009)

Being one of the big Oscar contenders this year i tried not to expected too much from this movie. But what i got was far far less then i could ever have anticipated.
It's like the writers sat down and thought of a great idea about a guy, Benjamin, aging backwards. What the writers then forgot to do was think of an interesting life-story for this Benjamin guy. Sure it could be fun to see someone going to school when he already knows everything and having sex with young girls when he's an old guy, but there must be more something more interesting about a life led backwards. Instead what i saw was a 2:45 hour lasting agony. This guy Benjamin has the most boring life ever! He's just born one day and dies another.
Don't get me wrong. I love the Fincher movies (Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac) and I like Brad Pitt in almost all of his movies. But what everyone who's concerned with this movie (director, actors, producers, Oscar-nominators) seems to forget is that a movie has to have a story. And there is non, it's non-existent. It's like making a three hour long movie about John Doe.
We don't see that much acting as for a woman who's in a near-death state of living all the time and we hear a semi-emotional narration by Pitt which reminds too much of Forest Gump, except that he had a life worth telling. OK i do admit, Cat Blanchett does act, but it's outrageous over the top annoying with some phony accent without any emotional depth whatsoever.
Benjamin Button's dad is a guy who made a fortune making buttons, you believe that? Now that's a story worth telling! He has a big house, his whole family was in the business of making buttons and he owns a boat etc. But no... the story about his son's boring life is what's shown instead.
I guess the point i'm trying to make is that i didn't like the movie and don't understand why the life story of Benjamin Button is worth telling with mediocre acting all the way. No wonder most reviews lack any basis for a high rating or Oscar nomination.