I’m just going to come out and say it. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is one of the most bizarre, but one of the best movies I have seen in the past couple of years. It’s a moving story that covers life in its fullest.
Honestly, this movie is like another telling of Brad Pitt’s breakout movie Legend of the Fall. It follows the main character literally from birth to finding himself, with everything that entails. It then follows by telling the rest of the story until he dies. Much like Legend of the Fall, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is told through someone else’s mouth. Unlike Legend of the Fall, the person who ended up telling the story was reading through Button’s (Brad Pitt) journal. Also, unlike Legend of the Fall, Brad Pitt’s character in this movie is born old and his aging is reversed, starting off looking and feeling like he’s in the rip old age of his late 80s and dying looking like he’s six months old.
The movie is a tale of love, life and loss. Button was born the day WWI ended. He lived through the Roaring ’20s and Great Depression, served in WWII, etc. You see him when he’s able to take his first actual steps at the age of 7. You see him during his first time with a woman, at the age of 12 or 13, when the tugboat captain who hired him takes him to a brothel. Hey, at that time he looked about 60, so do you think a captain or anyone working with child labor laws would second guess it? You see him get to meet his father, who abandoned him at birth, for the first time at the age of 15. You watch him live and die through both his eyes and the eyes of those who had the most influence in the way he grew up. The entire story of Benjamin is told through his journal read by the child of his lover, and then through the words of Benjamin’s lover in a New Orleans hospital before Hurricane Katrina hits.
The entire film is gorgeous. The soundtrack is perfect for the film. The camera work is just right. The lighting is perfect and accentuates the mood of each scene. The film’s casting is top-notch and the chemistry between each person is believable. The special effects work just the way they are. There really isn’t much else that can be said. Sure there are some editing quirks, but then again, even the best films out there had problems.
This movie is a gem in cinema. Due to its oddity it might be an acquired taste. Still, it is one of the finest films released within the past five years, or if you want to go back with films that are similar to it (Big Fish and Legend of the Fall) the past 15 years.