The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Rating: 7/10 (11 January 2009)

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is about a man born with unusual complications who later goes on to lead a normal life, but his unique condition may come back to haunt him and he must deal with that as he seeks work and falls in love. I was overall quite disappointed with this film. After seeing how many awards and nominations it has earned, I figured I would really like this story, but it left me with much to be desired. Technically the film is very well made with great makeup, sets, cinematography and visuals. I also liked the overall visual style and the period piece settings as well. The acting from the entire ensemble cast was also quite good, so I guess my main problem lies with the film's screenplay. I thought the first half of the film was fascinating and really quite involving and unique. I was actually quite intrigued about what would happen to this character in the second half of the film and that is where I was disappointed. Whereas, I felt the first half of the film to be quite interesting and have a good pace to it, I could not say the same for the second half. To me an original and intriguing idea just used many old Hollywood clichés and story lines and for me the film really started to drag. Normally, I do not have a problem with films with a longer running time and if I am really enjoying said film the time goes by really quickly for me, but this film had a longer running time and it was dragging for me and I was getting quite impatient for it to end. Not to mention that the second half of the movie was very sappy and melodramatic to the point of being ridiculous. It's one of those films that tries so hard to leave you with a lasting emotion, that it actually tries too hard and goes overkill with overly sad music and situations. I have nothing against sad movies, or even crying at a film, but when the film feels so forced on the viewer like this, it just does absolutely nothing for me. I wasn't heart warmed, or deeply saddened. I was just basically bored and ready to leave the theatre. If the second half of the film had been quite as well written, or original as the first half I could definitely see this film winning many awards and getting tons of praise, but as it currently stands I think it is just an okay film that could have been a lot better. Still this is just my opinion and others seem to love this film, so you the reader have to make up your own mind over the movie, but for me it just didn't hold up as well and resulted in another typical Hollywood film released at Oscar time hoping for a nomination, but with nothing new, or original. Too bad because it showed such promise.