THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Why are we fascinated by the entity so named "Brangelina"? Part of it has to do with what we see play out in their personal lives, but I would argue that it mostly has to do with the very interesting choices they make on screen. Jolie had her turn in this year's Changeling, a beautiful and compelling portrait of a victim of our injustice system. Now we have Pitt in the film that will most likely win the Academy Award for Best Picture because it's of the highest quality and it will make pots and pots of money.
The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button is based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story of the same name about a man is who born elderly and ages backwards. David Fincher, the director, Academy Award winning writer, Eric Roth, and Pitt himself had been thinking about filming this tale for years, despite the obvious challenges of making a story like this "believable". The final product is not so much an adaptation as a "based upon" since Roth and the team have significantly expanded the story, taking it beyond realism and creating a fantastical John Irving world replete with Dickensian characters and adventures.
Benjamin is born as a tiny old man in 1918, at the expense of his mother who dies in childbirth. His father Thomas Button (Jason Flemying), in a radical departure from the short story, leaves Ben on the doorstep of Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) who brings him into the old age home she manages and "raises" him as her child. There Ben is both among his peers (old people) but also befriends the young granddaughter of one of the residents, Daisy (Cate Blanchett) since emotionally he is indeed a child. In this nurturing environment he is taught everything from the piano to Shakespeare by Queenie's husband Tizzy (Mahershalhashbaz Ali). Soon, it becomes clear that the baby that was not supposed to live, is getting younger and at the age of 18 he sets off for some adventures, working on board a tugboat owned by Captain Mike (Jared Harris. During this time he experiences his first kiss and love affair with Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton), the "older" woman who shows him the ways of the world. As Ben continues to age backward, and Daisy continues to age forward, their romantic longing for each other increases, yet they miss each other until they finally meet in the middle. But the story does not end there.
David Fincher is known for his uniquely dark vision in films like, Seven, Fight Club and the underappreciated but superb Zodiac. There has always been an element of the mystical or supernatural in these films, but here, it becomes magical, in an almost fairy tale sense. What is absolutely common to Fincher's past work is his ability to create a world so absorbing, that you are transported and this is the authentic magic of cinema. Even if you don't understand, are even turned off by the Fincher world, of say underground boxers, you somehow find yourself in the middle of it. I would argue that even in films that purport to construct a wall between the audience and pleasure, the best like, Lars Von Trier's Breaking the Waves, are still completely absorbing. Benjamin Button is a film that is sad, funny, emotionally compelling and invites you into a fantasy world you never want to leave, sort of like the way you feel about The Wizard of Oz or why I cried when I had to finish The Cider House Rules.
If you're wondering how Pitt manages to pull off going from 80 to infant, the magic of special effects make-up, compositing and every other trick in the book gently coaxes you into a comfortable suspension of disbelief. No literalism is allowed here, leave it at the door. More amazingly perhaps is Pitt's ability to invite us to join him on the aging backward adventure, to occupy his point of view. Cate Blanchett, another superb Australian, theatre-based chameleon, gets to go the other way: from 23-80, and is mostly left to play off and react to the every changing Benjamin. Taraji P. Henson, as Queenie, Ben's adoptive mom, shines here as she always does in whatever film she's in. I recently loved her in Tyler Perry's latest misadventure, wishing and hoping, as I usually do with so many talented and underused actresses of color, that I would see more of her in better films. Here she has a beautiful role, not a whiff of black matriarch or mammy to be found. We also get an honest glimpse of the unique and oddly porous nature of New Orleans culture (much of the film was made there just after Hurricane Katrina).
Benjamin Button is so rich, so jam packed with character, adventure, and heart that I did have a hard time getting up and leaving. I had to ask if my desire to enter these kinds of fictional worlds, that I'm so comfortable in, might be some kind of problem. On the other hand, to collaboratively construct a celluloid world that is so satisfying should be nothing but inspiring to the creative impulses in all of us. In the sense that it achieves all of this, affecting the way that we think and feel about the world, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is indeed transformative.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button opens December 25, 2008.
Directed by David Fincher; written by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord; produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceàn Chaffin; director of photography, Claudio Miranda; production designer, Donald Graham Burt; edited by Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall; costumes designed by Jacqueline West; music by Alexandre Desplat; and Special Make-up Effects by Greg Cannom. Released by Paramount Pictures.
With: Brad Pitt (Benjamin Button); Cate Blanchett (Daisy); Taraji P. Henson (Queenie); Julia Ormond (Caroline); Jason Flemyng (Thomas Button); Elias Koteas (Monsieur Gateau); Tilda Swinton (Elizabeth Abbottt); Jared Harris (Captain Mike); and Mahershalhashbaz Ali (Tizzy.)
