9th Decemeber 2009

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) is my second favourite movie of all-time. I watched it for the first time back in June and was absolutely dazzled by it, and I kept getting it out every week until someone decided to buy it for me for my birthday. Apart from getting the four-disc edition of Gone with the Wind (my favourite movie of all-time) for my birthday last year, Benjamin Button is one of the best birthday presents I've ever got. When people watch this movie, half of them love it and half of them hate it. It is mostly people in their teens who hate it, because they can't sit through long movies about one man's life. Even though I myself am a teenager, I was on the side that loved it, mainly because it taught me a few things about life. Benjamin Button is an extraordinary character, played superbly by Brad Pitt. He is a man who was born as an 85 year old, and finds out that he ages backwards. When he is (outwardly) around 80, he meets a seven year old Daisy (Cate Blanchett, who voices Daisy when she is a child, and then later plays Daisy for the most part of the film), who ages normally, but he still falls in love with her. The story is based around his life, and his love for Daisy. Along the way, he meets a raft of different people who changed his life, like Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), the woman who raises him; Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton), a woman he meets in Russia and who he has an affair with; Captain Mike (Jared Harris), a wayward sailor who shows Benjamin the rebellious way of life; and his estranged father Thomas (Jason Flemyng), who finds Benjamin 15 years after he is born and tries to reconcile with him. This movie is just simply amazing. The c-g work, and also the make-up to make characters look older/younger is one of a kind. And as for the story, it is enchanting, the kind that you will never see again. The performances absolutely blew me away, Brad Pitt was great and Oscar worthy; Cate Blanchett was astoundingly beautiful and did well as a bed-ridden 80-something year old woman; and even the support cast carefully crafted their roles so they were nothing short of the two leads. Now, I haven't seen any of David Fincher's other work, but I hear this a bit of a step out of his comfort zone, and if it is, I reckon he should stick to this. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button will dazzle you with it's graphics, music score and cinematography, and will warm your heart with the performances, the story and the tearful end. Loved it.
10/10