Life Understood Backwards

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2008. Dir. David Fincher. 2 hours 47 minutes.

Saw Benjamin Button on Boxing Day. Had a diet Coke.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the story of man (played by Brad Pitt) who is born as an old man, and goes through his life aging backwards, becoming more youthful as everyone else around him gets older. The film takes its name, premise, and protagonist's name from a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but nothing else.

The film will probably remind many of Forrest Gump, and with good reason, as they both had the same screenwriter. Benjamin Button, I would argue, has a bit more depth to it. While Gump seemed to revolve around the theme of chance and fate, Button is more directly about life and how we travel through it. Although I am only 27, I think I can safely gauge that I will be happy to trade my youth for wisdom, an oppurtunity that Button does not seem to get. Forrest Gump traveled through life as an idiot, essentially; Ben Button, while growing younger, develops what I would describe as a vapidity. This is not a flaw of Brad Pitt's performance, but actually a strength, since I feel that loss of accumulated wisdom is the point of the story.

Cate Blanchett does a strong job as Button lifelong love, Daisy, especially in the framing scenes at her deathbed, where she recounts the tale to her daughter, played by Julia Ormond, who I would love to see make a comeback into mainstream films (or any films at all) since she seemed to disappear in the late 90's. There's been awards talk for Taraji Henson, who plays Button's adopted mother, but I can't say that her performance did much for me.

Overall, I liked Benjamin Button quite a bit, and it really made me ponder my own life, which is all you can ask of any film.

5 stars out of 5

Upcoming movies in the next week

Welcome to the holiday edition of Upcoming Movies, and on this Christmas weekend, there are a bunch:

Tomorrow, Christmas Day. If your family is starting to annoy you and you want to escape to the movies, you have no less than 7 new movies opening in Ottawa tomorrow. Here are your choices:

The Reader
This adapation of the bestselling German novel (and Oprha's Book Club pick) is about a man who discovers that the older woman he had as a lover when he was young might have a terrible secret in her past. Psst .... the secret involves Nazis. Directed by Stephen Daldry (The Hours) and starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Brune Ganz and my favorite Romanian actress, Alexandra Maria Lara (this is the 3rd film in 4 years with Ganz and Lara, all of which involved Nazis).




The Spirit
Comic Book writer Frank Miller directs this comic book adapatation, which is getting some downright awful reviews. Stars Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson.




Bedtime Stories
From Disney comes this Adam Sandler movie where he tells stories to his nephews, and the stories come to life. Sarcastic Yay!




Doubt
This new film is about a power struggle between a head nun and a young idealist priest in a New York parish in the 1960s. The play was a huge hit on Broadway, and teh film has garnered lots of awards attention already. Stars Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis. Opens on Christmas Day, but also heads to the Bytowne a week later on New Years Day if you want to support your local independent theatre.




Valkyrie
Want more Nazis? Instead of Oprah's Book Club pick The Reader, you can have Oprah's Couch Club pick Tom Cruise in Valyrie, where Cruise must single-handedly assasinate Adolph Hitler in order to restore Scientology as the dominant force in Germany. From director Bryan Singer, and also starring Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, and Bill Nighy.




Marley & Me
Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston adopt the worst puppy ever, but grow to love it. If you want to see a real bad dog, rent White Dog.




And my pick for a Christmas movie this year, David Fincher's
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Brad Pitt stars as a a baby born as an old man who then ages backwards, while the world keeps going forward. The movie looks fantastic, and I encoruage everyone to check it out. Also stars Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton.




I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas.