More than anything, Benjamin Button seems like the kind of epic movie made for collecting Oscar nominations.

Rating: 7/10 (27 May 2009)

More than anything, Benjamin Button seems like the kind of epic movie made for collecting Oscar nominations. Nominations, I say, because its merits stop short of allowing it to win the big prize. It wants to be this year's The English Patient but is instead more like The Aviator, which was visually impressive but not emotionally.
I hate to use Cate Blanchett as a yardstick because of my bias for her but she really is the consummate actress and any 'big' movie that doesn't score her an Oscar nomination is seriously flawed one way or other. Here, I believe it's the story, which never really touched me. It's told like a fairy tale, with wistful narration and glowy cinematography, but it's a story that is bizarre and distant and thus doesn't invite empathy. How does one empathize with a man who's aging in reverse or a woman who loses the love of her life because he's getting too young for her? Actually, done well, a movie could have me empathizing with any character. But the character of Benjamin Button was played with a sort of detachment by Brad Pitt. With most scenes he was more like an observer, watching the people around him. I don't quite understand his Oscar nomination, seeing as how in most of his scenes he was upstaged by his makeup.
It is no surprise though, that Taraji P. Henson too scored an Oscar nomination, since she provides the warmest moments of the movie, though unfortunately they're over too early. She plays a woman who's unable to have children and so adopts the aberrant and abandoned Benjamin Button - a very sympathetic role.
Blanchett feels unjustly misused here, as she comes across as more like Button's mirror than love interest, serving to just reflect his aging process through the years.
The movie does look impressive though, in terms of cinematography and set. It's hard to comment on the makeup, seeing as how no matter how real it looks, you'd know it's not real. While I think director David Fincher did a good job here considering the span of the work, I still prefer him directing thrillers.