A Short Review Over Benjamin Button

Mark Twain said, “Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18.” This scenario is presented in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button himself, and Kate Blanchett as his fair-weather friend and love obsession, Daisy. Benjamin is the subject of a curious disposition; he’s born old, and grows younger with each passing year. However, Benjamin seems neither “infinitely happier”, nor destitute over his situation, but rather at peace with his strange condition.

This film, directed by David Fincher and based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (although it takes little more from the story than the idea of a man born old and aging backwards), is slow paced, yet emotionally captivating. The script is air-tight and powerful, and Brad Pitt does a magnificent job at playing an incredibly bizarre yet serene character and making it seem effortless, with Kate Blanchett also performing first-rate as usual. The use of special effects in this movie to age the characters between very young to extremely old, is equally, if not more remarkable. My only grievance was the voice of the very old Brad Pitt. The creepy little voice sounds like that of a young boy with a frog in his throat rather than the raspy voice of a decrepit old man.

The highlight of the story is the love that Benjamin and Daisy share, although it is fleeting and lasts only over a small portion of the movie. I found the character of Daisy to be vulgar and cruel, which is a testament to Benjamin’s steadfast love for her. Although he could forgive her, I could not. Benjamin’s walking out on her and the child seems no more than poetic justice for her behavior, acting like a selfish wench when he comes to visit her in New York, and to check on her after her accident in Paris. Only when she was unable to hang around bars with her fellow dancers, and Benjamin was in his prime, did she begin to act decently towards him. On the contrary, one of the films most amusing characters was the hard-drinking tugboat Captain, Mike, played by Jared Harris.

The film communicated strongly through symbolism. Captain Mike had a hummingbird tattooed on his chest, and Benjamin encounters a hummingbird the morning after Captain Mike’s death, even though they were miles out to sea.” The hummingbird reappears at the end of the movie in the window of Daisy’s hospital room where she is on her death bed. While the hurricane is foreshadowing her death, the hummingbird symbolizes life after death. This concurs with another tattoo captain Mike had, the symbol of infinity, and the clock that we see again at the end of the movie, which ticks backwards symbolizing Benjamin’s life. The clock, although old and long forgotten, is still ticking unfalteringly. These symbols put together send the message that life, just like time, goes on infinitely in both directions.

Never in the movie does Benjamin become overcome by his emotions, even upon the death of his mother, Queenie (Taraji Henson). This restraint was wise; nobody wants to see Brad Pitt cry, and if he did, no one would believe it. Instead of being flamboyant with his emotions, Pitt plays the role from start to finish with a temperance like that of a child on his best behavior; he is never belligerent or fanatical, but rather flows through the movie with a calm and passive consonance. The only time we see any true animation from him is in the time spent living with Daisy in the duplex, which is rushed through and over quickly.

The only downside to the movie is it seems to drag, hitting just over 2 hours and 45 minutes, with some scenes like the not-so-brief introduction to the Chaos Theory lasting too long and doing little to advance the plot. Overall I thought the film was beautiful, brimming with talent from beginning to end. It didn’t end with a huge climax, but with a whimper when the cooing baby Benjamin simply closes his eyes and fades. It doesn’t seem to need a showy ending to wrap up such an exquisite story. In the end, death finds everyone, and as Benjamin says, quoting Captain Mike, “You can be mad as a mad dog at the way things went, you can swear and curse the fates, but in the end, you have to let go.” That’s exactly what he does.