Bicurious Button

Rating: 4/10 (4 January 2009)

Here's a phrase I rarely use: 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' is one of the most overrated movies of the year, as 'Atonement' was last year. What easily could have been a 'Forrest Gump' remake, 'Button' stars Brad Pitt as a man aging backwards  interesting concept enough, but thoroughly uninteresting, spiteful character. By the end of the film, all that we gathered was that he liked playing the piano, alcohol and sex with multiple women, married or not, despite having a 'Jenny' (from 'Forrest') complex for Cate Blanchett (who, coincidentally, also doesn't mind fooling around while married.) I believe the movie was trying to be the next 'Forrest' but failed on many counts, including lack of heart and (interesting) characters to believe in or care about. I could never get into Pitt's character, as he starts out wholesome as 'Forrest' but then shows a completely aimless, selfish and shallow personality. And one of the things that irked me the most, just when he had everything he ever wanted, he leaves due to his "condition" of aging backwards, when I knew then, and the final half hour proved, he had plenty of time left with the life he would leave behind. If this was supposed to be a lesson in "acceptance" for differences in people, he learned basically nothing in his extremely meaningless life. And the worse scenes involved a speech-impaired Blanchett (not telling, but) listening to the 'Button' story. 'Titanic' got it right by narrowing its "older-Rose" scenes to but a few, not every 10 minutes. Now, the good: the special effects, background sets, score and cinematography were excellent, as they were for 'Atonement.' Overall, neither was terrible, but lacked the heart that would make them great movies.