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Ever since I saw the trailer, I literally became addicted to this film and repeatedly watched the trailer to build up to the hype of seeing the film despite knowing that I might be disappointed by it. However, when I watched it, I was blown away by it due to its beautiful production, its beauty and heartbreak and even the comedy within. I won't only remember the first time I watched it but I will also remember when I watched it for the first time. I saw it in the first 2 ½ hours of 2009 so that makes the film even more special. I think what is so extraordinary about The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is that as we enter Benjamin's life and watch him grow up there is a background of gold and everyone else looking younger than he is when he is really younger but as it gradually gets to the end when Benjamin physically becomes a child but is really a pensioner, we see another new background and it feels like that they are split into two different films when they are really together. In shorter words: like seeing the old days at the start during World War I and World War II with clothings, neighbourhoods and attitudes but seeing modern day life like today as the film progresses.
I think mainly why The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is so awesome is because it is depressing throughout the whole 166 minute duration of the film and it makes it more tragic so therefore it is more powerful and is going to keep a firm hold on the audience. I mean, a lot of people would say that this is a very daft story seeing as it is about a man who ages backwards but as the film progresses and Benjamin gets younger, you begin to realise just how clever this film really is despite the plot being so basic and can be explained in one single sentence. The cinematography was just fantastic! That is another thing about it: it is a film of both dark and beautiful art. It was robbed by Slumdog Millionaire with the Academy Award. The art direction was just fantastic as well and made the audience sink into the film and stick with it all the way through. The make-up was fantastic obviously. Probably the most impressive make-up I have seen on a film. Visual effects were stunning too especially on Brad Pitt as child-pensioner Benjamin.
Time and time again, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button has been compared as like a cousin so to speak to both Robert Zemeckis's Forrest Gump and Tim Burton's Big Fish and that it is 'the Forrest Gump of the noughties' and, to be perfectly honest, I really can see why and how all three are similar. Forrest, Benjamin and Edward tell their life stories with the adventures they experience and their love lives as well. Also, they are unsure about what they want out of life but they live their lives anyway and just see what happens in them. The film received 13 Academy Award nominations and it is one of the three films to have been nominated for the most Academy Awards in one year without winning Best Picture (others are Mary Poppins in 1964, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? in 1966 and The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring in 2001).
Hurricane Katrina is hitting New Orleans and Daisy is on her deathbed in a local hospital with her daughter Caroline by her side. Daisy requests Caroline get out a diary for her to read and it is the story of her life-long friend Benjamin Button. As Caroline reads the diary to Daisy, her voice begins to change to Benjamin's voice. The story of Benjamin begins on the night World War I ended and follows a man named Thomas Button trying to get back home as quickly as possible because his wife is giving birth. When she passes away in childbirth, Thomas looks at the baby in horror and takes him out into the streets and abandons him outside a senior's home and is raised in a nice warm place by a young black woman called Queenie who happens to be the caregiver at the home. A doctor who was there told Queenie that Benjamin's body is failing him before his life has begun so therefore he is going to die soon. As Benjamin grows up into his teenage years but still looking in his early 70s, he meets Daisy who is just a little girl at the time and almost instantly falls in love with her. Her grandmother is a pensioner who lives at the home. As he begins to grow, he begins to realise that he is in fact getting younger so he heads to sea during World War II but that leads him away from Daisy. Despite this, they keep in contact throughout their lives and the tables begin to turn and begin to get more depressing. Julia Ormond's performance as Caroline is very underrated. Again, like with Brad Pitt and Taraji P. Henson, Ormond is playing the daughter of Cate Blanchett's character Daisy and in real-life Julia Ormond is older than Cate Blanchett by
I was surprised by Brad Pitt's performance as Benjamin Button. Brad is usually seen as this tough hunky guy playing criminals, gang leaders, heart-throbs or cops but Benjamin bought out something in Brad that we hadn't seen before. He was absolutely fantastic and he certainly proved in this one that Benjamin really is his very own character and there will never be another film made like this again. Despite that Benjamin was narrating the story, every single time that Brad was on screen, there was always either visual effects or make-up added. I was impressed with Brad's child-pensioner Benjamin voice before he went to war in his teen years. Brad totally deserved the Best Leading Actor Academy Award but I feel he should have won it because not only was the character a breakthrough in cinema but it was also a breakthrough for the actor playing him and the performance itself. Cate Blanchett was fantastic as Daisy! Not only did Daisy and Benjamin make a great couple despite their differences but so did Brad and Cate and I really wish that Cate would keep her hair red because I think she looks absolutely gorgeous with that coloured hair. She was robbed of an Academy Award nomination so that was another crucial mistake from the Academy that year. Taraji P. Henson was really good as Queenie. This is weird but she is playing Queenie who is older than Benjamin seeing as she is his foster mother but Brad Pitt is 7 years older than Taraji P. Henson.
After a career of directing films based on crime and mystery, David Fincher goes somewhere different this time. Not only does the audience go on an extraordinary new adventure but so does the director Fincher doing it seeing as it is perhaps the first drama he has done. Also, the first fantasy film he has done as well. As far as how well he worked on it, I think it was absolutely fantastic direction! He probably did have a lot on his shoulders because viewers would be expecting something extraordinary and new that we hadn't seen before. Fincher, you have given us your masterpiece and unfortunately you didn't receive Best Director or Best Picture for the film itself but I think he'll win Best Director and Best Picture for The Social Network this year anyway. Eric Roth is another reason why Curious Case Of Benjamin Button has its similarities with Forrest Gump because he wrote the scripts for both of these films. His scripts are just fantastic and he is one of my favourite screenwriters.
Overall, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is a personal favourite of mine that will stick with me throughout the rest of my life. It is probably the most emotional and tear-jerking film I have ever watched and I can't see how people can watch it without crying. This will probably always remain as my favourite David Fincher film and Brad Pitt performance. One of Cate Blanchett's best as well. If you're looking to go on a journey beyond any other than you will ever see, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is the one you are looking for. It is pretty much a perfect film for me.
