Charming film, though treads far too much familiar ground.

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2008)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Directed by David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club), this chronicles the life of a man named Benjamin (Brad Pitt) who ages physically in reverse. A fairly original premise that touches lightly on messages of life and death, this is a charming, often touching little movie.
Brad Pitt gives a quiet somewhat subdued performance. His character of Benjamin is always quite reserved, presumably to the inevitability of death. His introspect is mostly limited to the notes he makes in a journal, which is unfortunate. Cate Blanchett plays his main romantic interest Daisy. They have a sweet and (at the end) absolutely heart-breaking relationship. Yes, this is a tear-jerker, and your liking of the film depends on your taste for having your emotions manipulated. Personally I have no problems with that.
This film is strongly reminiscent of Big Fish, Edward Scissorhands, and Forrest Gump. With the same writer of the wonderful Forrest Gump, Benjamin Button treads a lot of known ground. It's told in the "hospital bed" manner that most of these films share. This is lovely to people that enjoy more of the same, but annoying to this reviewer given the uniqueness of the film's premise. The beginning and end of this film are very interesting. The middle could be picked from any number of biopics. No one outside of his immediate relations ever seems to notice that Brad Pitt's character ages in reverse. It would be an interesting twist if Ben was grabbed and experimented on. It would be interesting to explore how a 20 year old in appearance would be with a 55 year old's personality. Alas, the film does the Hollywood thing, takes an original premise and sees how close it can get back to the usual thing people expect.
This is disappointing considering it's David Fincher, whose previous films look nothing like this. It's a pretty good film, whatever my misgivings might indicate. Fincher has the taste for sentimentality, but his inexperience with this sort of film has made him toe the line to retain the box office and a chance at the Oscars. There might be one in the future of Best Make-up, but that's all I can see. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button gets a B+