A very smart and inventive story turns into a very conventional and soulless movie by a lot of additions and omissions

Rating: 4/10 (31 January 2010)

The main problem of Benjamin Button is that the original story is probably one of the most smart and interesting stories ever written, but the movie cannot adapt this idea well because of several reasons that I will mention in order. The first reason of this is that the movie changes a lot of things in the short story. Why? Benjamin Button was not boring to me at all, but it was soulless and conventional. I read the book after watching the movie which I seldomly do and I saw the differences and saw that how Fincher turns an interesting and heartbreaking story into a soulless and usual movie. For example, in the end of the movie, I felt nothing, but the book made me stunned. The book is very short, in fact too short for such a story, but somehow, the author fits everything into 70, 80 pages and it becomes wholly satisfying, not scratchy at all. What a success! In the movie, the script writer wrote a screenplay that makes a two hour and a half movie. Why? To make it an epic in order to win Oscar? Then, can we say that Benjamin Button is Oscar-driven (and I believe that also audience-driven) If the movie had been 100 minutes for example, still it would not have made it great, but much better, because there are unnecessary additions and omissions in the movie which the main problem as I said. Aren't there some movies which are pretty short, but one of the best ones of all times like 12 Angry Men? From now on, my review will contain spoilers about the movie and the book both. In the book, the writer is the narrator and his observations are very interesting and amusing as well. To tell some parts of the story by using a narrator is a cliché way, but in this book, it sounds mesmerizing. In the movie, we hear the story from a diary of a woman by his daughter. This is real cliché! In the book, the beginning, the hospital part is much more realistic than the movie, the reactions of the father, the nurses, the doctor, all the people are much more realistic. Instead, the movie uses a cliché, an ill old woman in a bed and her daughter who reads her mother's diary, uninspiring. One more thing, in the movie, Button is born as a deformed baby, in the book, it is a tiny old man. Benjamin Button in the original story is a much more interesting and amusing character, also his questions and his answers are the same. The tone of the movie, especially the story telling are not magical, it is conventional. For example, the battle scene in the sea, entertaining, but audience-driven, unnecessary and conventional. In the book, the first days of Button in home are very interesting too, it does not need such scenes, but the movie does not focus on Benjamin Button, his character, his psychology, the situations he is in, the reactions of the people around him etc. I loved this part in the book: his father brings a rattle and Button takes it by a weary expression and jingles it at intervals. He buys toys, but Button is not interested in, he reads medical articles to find an answer for his weird situation. The relationship between Button and his father id very important too, but in the movie, it was just uninspiring and does not make any sense. Yes, the book is about love also, but in the book, the love affairs of Button are very realistic, but the point is that it is not the center of the story. In the movie, the little girl is interested in Button when he is an odd-looking old man. Is such a spoiled little girl interested in such an odd looking old man? What a mess! At night, she invites him to play under a table. This is ''two children are interested in each other while playing'' matter. Obviously, she likes him which opens door to pedophilia. And the images which Button and Daisy live in a flat that has no furniture were inappropriate for such a content by the way. The movie is almost a pure romance, love story. It means that an interesting story turns into a love story. In the book, his wife does not attract him anymore, because he gets younger, it tells something about love. One of the most stunning parts in the book takes place in the university. The movie does not even refer to this. He looses weight, gets weaken, so cannot be as successful as he does in the first year in the football team. These parts make you sorry for him. In the movie, the childhood years of Benjamin Button is told in a too scratchy way. We see him while playing piano and later on the roof, that's all. What is the point? He is very angry, he swears that seems odd. Yes, spiritually, he gets older, so being awkward is normal, but it is against the original idea that is much more consistent and brilliant. In the book, Benjamin becomes a normal child, nothing more nothing less, he plays toy soldiers etc. then is sent to a kindergarten. The author describes his childhood years in detail (yes, imagine, this is a 80 pages book) Only by two pages, two pages!, Fitzgerald tells his childhood and babyhood periods and it is so effective, we feel everything that baby Button feels. In the movie, we see that he is in Daisy's arms and closes his eyes. Honestly, I felt nothing. Besides being visually well and entertainment in some scenes, the only good thing in the movie is Brad Pitt, who is one of my favorite actors. That's all.