The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an incredibly well made and entertaining movie. I think this movie suffers most because it attempts to cover so much material that can't possibly completely fulfill its initial promise. Despite this, it is still an interesting and visually stunning film.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button starts very slowly, but once it gets going, you lose yourself in the story. This is made even easier by the insane visual effects on display here. Regularly in this film you see close up shots of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in various stages of aging that looks completely seamless. This is one of those rare instances, much like the director David Fincher's previous film Zodiac, where the viewer doesn't notice the vast majority of the effects being used. Amazing stuff.
My only major criticisms of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button involve the story and the editing. Some of the story seems to have been short changed. It seems like we spend a lot of time with Benjamin as a baby and small child and then breeze through much of his middle years. I think this movie could have been 15 minutes longer and been better for it. I also felt the narrative style, involving inter-cutting Benjamin's story with present day events, to be poorly done at times. Instead of occasionally cutting back and forth as most movies which use this format do the editor here on occasion would cut frequently between the two points of view, which really pulled me out of the story.
Overall I have to say that I really enjoyed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It combines fantastic direction and effects with two great performances from Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in one of the more interesting stories to come along in a while. 4/5
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