A Curious Case of...

Well, after attending a preview screening over a week ago, I shall now write a post about the recent release "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". I warn you now that there could be spoilers within this article, so perhaps go and see the film before you read ahead. I am not a fan of the reviewers who go out there and spoil little details about a film. But I am not a fan of film reviewers in general. A puzzling statement? Perhaps, as I am indeed doing something similar, but its the "I hate this film and consquently you will too" film reviews, and the whole snobbery that goes along with it. Oh well, thats out of the system. And now for some hypocritical writings:

Months before its release, Ben Button has been touted as one of the years best (and by some critics) one of the decades best. So let's just say that this film is a tad beyond anticipated. Immediate award season buzz can often disappoint audiences when the eyes actually hit the screen, however, I can only say that Ben Button is truly one heartbreakingly beautiful story.

The main gist of Ben Button is that Brad Pitt is born an old man and ages backwards, meeting Cate Blanchett as a young girl, and then again later on "meeting in the middle", thus creating an unusual situation of Brad Pitt getting younger as Cate Blanchett grows older. I've heard that apparently half of the budget was spent of the CGI aging effects. And lets just say that to this film, these effects have the utmost significance, adding slight plausibility to the unbelieveable story. Roger Ebert, gave the film a little 2 1/2 stars out of the usual 4 that most Oscar bound films receive. He went on about the impracticle idea of how someone could age backwards. Now, we do know that Mr. Ebert has been in and out of hospital lately, and so perhaps this could be a fair reason for such a comment. Because it's not like films and stories are a creation of fiction. According to Mr. Ebert, films must be heavily plausible. So, I guess according to Mr. Ebert, there would be a lot of film that must be baloney. Perhaps every Disney movie ever made.

Ben Button was originally a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, yonks ago, and that's just the start of the amazing crew behind this film. You've got an adaptation by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, co writer of Munich), David Fincher as director (Fight Club, Zodiac) and a wonderful score by Alexandre Desplat (The Queen). Acting snaps go to the quite wonderful cast of Brad Pitt (he has an innocent, boyish romantic charm about him in this), Cate Blanchett (wonderful by default as always) Taraji P. Henson (absolute scene stealer!) Tilda Swinton (what is it about this woman that makes her fascinating?) and Julia Ormond (that girl from the remake of Sabrina...where the hell did she go?).

Watching this 3 hour epic, which did not feeling that long, was a feast for the romantic at heart. The story was so beautiful, and piecing together the pieces make you realise how well this film was made. Snaps go to the cinematographer and Fincher, and just everyone in general. This highly successful collaborative effort is an example of what happens when everything goes right.

But after writing this, I wonder what substance does it add? I criticise reviews, and consequently make some myself. Hypocrisy leads to guilt, but I just needed to get this out there. If you can get anything from reading this, I hope it is to see THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON