Ponderous bore

Rating: 3/10 (16 April 2010)

Literally watching paint dry would be more lively that this movie.
While the visual tricks and sepia are all wonderful, this film is a massively tedious failure. The characters are less alive than slabs in a mortuary and they move through the scenes like wooden props. And it's all so solemn, as if life's lessons are delivered in homily style.
Benjamin Button is like Forrest Gump but with all the life, action and wit and humor sucked out of him.
The reason lies with the script which has removed any action and turned it all into reaction. The script is executed in reported style, so Benjamin tells the audience what is happening, as the actors do it but without any agency. The problem is fundamental as it starts the film, with the book reading and the old woman in the bed: the story is narrated not acted. A basic lesson from film school and scriptwriting is not to make this mistake or the end product is this dull. Benjamin is not the agent of his life – things happen to him. Another lesson fro drama and script wring, the protagonist must be the agent of their own life.
Due to this failure in the script the actors are all redundant – it's a novel with pictures. And ultimately the musings on life and time are just pretentious and incomplete.
Go outside to a lawn, get a chair and a drink, sit down and watch the grass grow. That will say more about life and time than this movie.