When I heard the initial concept of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button I wasn't sure what to expect. I saw the trailer and was still mysteriously interested in how this movie would work. Besides when two of Hollywood's most beautiful people are together for the first time, that's worth the price of a large soda and popcorn right there!We are taken on a remarkable journey with Benjamin, a young baby left at the doorstep of a nursing home in New Orleans in 1918 at the end of World War I. A couple who work at the home find the baby. The women named Queenie(Taraji P. Henson) is unable to conceive and takes the baby with plans to raise it as her own. The problem is Benjamin is 86 years old.
Over the course of the story Benjamin biologically grows younger. While living in the nursing home he meets a young girl named Daisy(Cate Blanchett). They have fun together and play games together, except they are close to 60 years apart. The story between Benjamin and Daisy is as true to a love story as one can get and the scene where they meet after being seperated for over three decades is one of the movies best moments. I'm not sure if there has been another moment in movies where two beautiful people share the screen so well.
By the time Benjamin is able to leave and be on his own he takes a job on a tugboat. Over the course of the next couple decades he meets people who inspire him and learn from him. Benjamin meets Elizabeth(Tilda Swinton) who he falls in love with. Tilda always seems to be perfectly cast in all of her roles and this one is no exception.
I could continue to explain the next few decades of Benjamin's life, but I want you to grow on the journey with Benjamin the same way I did; with unexpected turmoil and beautiful encounters. It has the same feel as Forest Gump or maybe even Big Fish, two movies that expanded your thinking and opened your mind to a fairytale that seems real for the three hours of pure entertainment.
As Benjamin grows younger, his mind turns older and it's obviously what happens once someone grows old. Brad Pitt is fantastic in this role. It's hard to decipher what is real and what is special effects, something I feel hurts the true talent of his performance. Cate Blanchett is truly breathtaking, but what's new right?! Taraji P. Henson is great as Queenie, with every scene she gives us a believable mother, who loves her son unconditionally.
Director David Fincher has worked with Pitt before, on dark movies like Fight Club and Se7en.
His foray into another genre is welcomed greatly, he moves us through the life and times of a boy F. Scott Fitzgerald introduced us to many years ago and I'm sure would be very proud of this movie.
Benjamin is one of the best films of the year, if not in the past decade. What Forest Gump did for an audience 15 years ago, Benjamin will do now.
STILL IN THEATERS
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