sense and impact

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2009)

While flawed in terms of the writing and length, much of Benjamin Button works.It gives one a set of scenes that linger in the memory. It also provides a new way of looking at one's life. One can see all the holes and see all the tricks of technology, but it seems to cut through things. For this viewer, it may be sets of resonances of the major actors in earlier roles---Pitt in Legends of the Fall and A River Runs Through It and Cate Blanchett in the brief but powerful role she had as Galadrial in Lord of the Rings. Or it may be the way certain moments and ideas resonate in ones own mind. The truths are simple, but resonate. Is this a Buddhist fable of the power of impermanence--I think so and because of that, for this individual, this long, long long film works regardless of its very real and very deep set of flaws.