The Curious Pun Film Review of Benjamin Button!

Rating: 8/10 (16 January 2009)

As I turned 40 this past summer, I was craving that some unexplained cosmic phenomenon would cause me to be positively inflicted with a severe curious case of Benjamin-Buttonitis. Is there a remote chance that I might be celebrating my 39th Birthday next summer? Probably not! The premise of laboring a film about a man who ages backwards is undoubtedly a very intriguing one. Director David Fincher has fulfilled our curiosity with that by helming "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Brad Pitt stars as Benjamin Button, an extraordinary man who is born old and gets younger with time. Benji is raised by two kids who love their pet! Oops! Wrong Benji movie! Benjamin is raised by Queenie, a black woman who is a caregiver at a senior citizens home in New Orleans. However, things get kind of old for Benjamin with time. Therefore, he embarks on a voyage in the high seas as he gets younger and restless. Benjamin then meets Elizabeth Abbott, a bored married woman who finds his lifeline case very intriguing and falls for the younger (or older) Benjamin! I am confused!!!! I she "cougaring" him or not? That relationship turns out to be a short term one! Abbott eventually became the first woman to swim the English Channel. Benjamin's true buttoned-down love is for Daisy. Ben meets Daisy as a child while he is an old man; and as time progresses, he gets younger, she gets older, and they meet in the middle. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" does have some similar themes as "Forrest Gump" but Button's case is more extraordinaire than Gump's; but Gump goes through more outlandish life experiences than Button. Although, hands down, I take the Button deal more than the Gump one anytime. In any sense, the film is primarily Benjamin and Daisy's undying love story. Pitt's timeless performance was very commendable and will grow fonder with age! Cate Blanchett was once again impressive as Daisy, and she continues to gel nicely with Pitt in the screen chemistry department; they played a bickering married couple in 2006's "Babel". Taraji P. Henson charmed us with her maternal Queenie portrayal, and Tilda Swinton was all about the abbott with her swimmingly winning work as Elizabeth Abbott. Pitt's makeup jobs as the young-in-age geriatric Button (smell a massive oxymoron there) was nothing short of phenomenal! I also commend the Art Directors and Cinematographers for their challenging case of Benjamin Button's picturesque appearance. There has been a curious case sometime now in Hollywood on why the acclaimed David Fincher has never been nominated for a Best Director Academy Award. I think that case will be solved once he receives his well-deserved Oscar nomination for his visually-enlightening cinematic architecture of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". My only age issue with the film was the time itself! It was 30 minutes too long for me, I felt like a year older (or younger, depending if I had Buttonitis or not) at the end of the film. Another minor gripe I had with the Button flick was with Eric Roth's humdrum screenplay; it looked like a copyright infringement of his own 'Forrest Grump" screenplay. Roth should sue himself! Nonetheless, I am still highly recommending for the old and the young to check out "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". **** Good