Thanks to all who, on a Christmas Day, have linked to or sent me the raves. Trying to balance doing the family thing with the Oscar watching thing. This one from TIME’s Richard Corliss:
Eric Roth, author of the adaptation (with Robin Swicord) and the final screenplay of Benjamin Button, also wrote the Forrest Gump movie, another story of an unusual innocent, which leaned as heavily on computer effects as this one. (At the extremes of his life Benjamin is played by children, or with Pitt’s face miraculously superimposed on other actors’ bodies.) But here the CGI magic and the artful makeup elegantly serve the poignant fantasy of a displaced soul who knows that the very young and the very old are similarly dependent, and everything in between is a precious gift. So is this wonderful movie.
And the Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern starts his review:
If time flowed backward for me as it does for Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” I would have been almost three hours younger by the time the end credits rolled around. No such luck on that score, but David Fincher’s majestic fantasy left me happier than I could have imagined I’d be. Eric Roth’s screenplay, inspired by a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, turns on a single device. A baby is born old — not just old but downright senescent — and youthens as he grows. Yet the film, which co-stars Cate Blanchett, quickly outgrows any sense of gimmickry and matures into a one-of-a-kind meditation on mortality, time’s inexorable passage and the fleeting sweetness of love.
And closes it this way:
Not until he grows 15 years younger and she grows 15 years older, however, are they right for each other physically as well as spiritually. “My God,” Daisy says at one point in their mid-40s, “look at you — you’re perfect.” It’s a charming laugh line, since he has finally emerged as a fully recognizable Brad Pitt. And what a remarkable presence the actor is, not just during that golden era but before and after, when he has only his voice and eyes with which to fashion Ben’s character while the wonders of digital technology and age-confounding makeup provide his body and face.
It’s a great performance by any measure, but let me count some of the other ways that Mr. Fincher’s film is remarkable. Ms. Blanchett’s performance, to be sure; she’s breathtaking in a long red dress, dancing in a fog-shrouded gazebo; otherwise she’s simply dazzling, and deeply affecting. A supporting cast that includes Tilda Swinton, Taraji P. Henson, Jason Flemyng and Jared Harris. Alexandre Desplat’s score, as exquisite and evocative as the Scott Joplin concert waltz woven through it. Claudio Miranda’s sumptuous cinematography, Donald Graham Burt’s art direction and production design, and Jacqueline West’s costumes. “Benjamin Button” is all of a visionary piece, and it’s a soul-filling vision.
Wow.
No Response for "More Raves for Button"
wow.. indeed….
It currently has a really pitiful score on Metacritic where it is hanging onto the 60’s.
It’s at 69 and neither of these two reviews have been included in the score yet. (Mick LaSalle’s 25 score is really a kick in the gut.)
Merry Christmas!
Or A.O. Scott’s, I think it’s final score will hover in the mid 70’s
I don’t understand what people are missing about this film. No, it isn’t perfect, but somehow that makes the whole thing even richer and more beautiful. For me it’s nothing short of a wholly original, groundbreaking masterpiece, perhaps a film ahead of its time and one that is perhaps too cerebral and too observational for today’s audience. But I’d be damned if that wasn’t one of the most haunting, stunningly gorgeous, melancholic and poetic things I have ever witnessed. It’s like… from another planet.
I would love to know what Steven Spielberg thinks of this film.
Funny, because I remember hearing he thought it was a “masterpiece.” Don’t remember where I heard this, but I definitely read it somewhere.
Googled:
Spielberg on Button
“Your coming here will help preserve so many foreign and American classics, including the one you are about to see now, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.” Well, I still want to know what he thought of the film.
Come on, a wholly original, groundbreaking masterpiece?
I mean, I enjoyed it, it was gorgeous to look at and had a lot of good stuff in it, but Eric Roth’s string of cliches does not a masterpiece make.
Yeah, I wouldn’t call it a groundbreaking masterpiece either. Loved it, but I’m still not convinced it’s even the best movie of the year (although certainly Top 5).
Part of what keeps it back slightly is Roth’s script with occasionally feels to Gumpian in its artificiality. I can’t believe some people feel the movie is too cold — I think it’s a deeply moving film, and almost overly sentimental at times.
Great, great movie — I can’t believe something as unimaginative (albeit competent) as ‘Frost/Nixon’ is endlessly praised while ‘Button’ is met with reserved recognition — I’ll never understand that.
One thing I’ve noticed from a few people I know who have seen it today, is that NONE of them knew how long it would be, and by the last third or so kept wondering when it was going to end.
Chase,
you echoed exactly what didn’t sit right about the film to me from about the point that he started working with the tugboat captain. I just kept feeling like I had seen this film before with Tom Hanks.
It really lessened the film alot in my eyes and made it feel like a hybrid of Forrest Gump and something slightly Burton-esque (Big Fish comes to mind).
It’s still an enjoyable film, but I can’t say it has much replay value for me.
It probably doesn’t crack the top five of the year for me.
Slumdog Millionaire and the Dark Knight still rank #1 and #2, with only the Wrestler left for me to see.
I’ll say I was very touched by this film. There were some parts that I felt were unneeded, a tad too illogical, or a little cliched, but to me it told a story that really has never been told.
I think the term “cold” is a wrong one to describe the film. I feel that it is a realistic look at how someone would act if this condition happened to them.
Ultimately, what struck me while watching the film was it made me think about my own life, especially my own loves, and it just gave me a different perspective that I had never really looked at before.
Anyway, my two cents. I have been in the crowd saying Slumdog and Milk will not win Best Picture, and I feel this fits enough of the classic Oscar holes.
Sorry to come on as a grumpy-Guss, but I persoanlly didn`t feel the love for the film. I did think it was wonderfully lensed and framed and there were some wonderful moments in the film. But personally, it did feel slightly artificial to me. It was hard to emotionally invest in the characters, to seriosuly feel for them. I DID love the overall idea of the film. The cathartic tone and overall what the movie was trying to say on death and dieing where well represented. But I could never really feel for the characters, and it always kept me at arms length from the movie. ALSO! some of the cliches were too much to handle and almost made me groan. Carolines epiphany towards the end was likely my least favorite.
That said and done, I’d still put it in my top 10. But likely at the bottom. And that mainly becasue I love David Fincher and the overall ambiton are applaud-worthy.
**SPOILERS**
I saw Ben Button and thought it was great. Thought the very last montage where they show you all the various characters again felt tacked on and didn’t end the film right. A better way of putting it is I don’t think that bit did justice for what I just saw, which I thought was brilliant. Also, surprisingly, Julia Ormond didn’t always work for me. Not to say she was bad, but honestly I didn’t buy that she just found out this guy was her father. There was nothing behind her eyes in that moment. Having bitched a little bit, I thought almost everything else was phenomenal. Cate was GREAT. Brad Pitt can add another career high to his resume. And nobody was better than Taraji P. Henson. 9.5 out of 10.
Here’s my top 10 as of now (still gotta see Valkyrie and Revolutionary Road):
1. The Dark Knight
2. WALL-E
3. Slumdog Millionaire
4. The Wrestler
5. Pineapple Express
6. The Visitor
7. Rachel Getting Married
8. Tell No One
9. Iron Man
10. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
11-25 in alphabetical order:
Appaloosa
Be Kind, Rewind
Boy A
Cassandra’s Dream
Choke
Frost/Nixon
Gran Torino
In Bruges
Kung Fu Panda
Milk
Snow Angels
Speed Racer
Synecdoche, New York
The Signal
Tropic Thunder
First I never knew critics had so much power over what wins Best Picture.
Second I wish I was around when The Departed was in the race. I would have loved to have read the varied comments. I can’t believe that movie was so beloved that it won Best Picture.
By the way, it looks like Button now claims the second biggest Christmas Day opening ever at the Box Office and is all set to gross something like 45 million in the first 4 days. This would mean it could make about 125-150 million when all is said and done.
no matter what people say i still adore this film definitely the best film of 2008.
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