The Curious Case of Is This Movie Over Yet?
This post is spoilerific and I won't bother recapping the plot.
The curious thing about this Benjamin Button isn't that he was born old* and grows young** but how my attention drifted while I watched it. During the first third (I'm totally guessing), I was distracted by how characters just didn't quite look right. Benjamin's appearance was off, but since he was supposed to be weird old guy, I'll give it pass; however Daisy was a mess. As a young girl, she looked like CGI and her speech didn't match her lip movements. The middle third, when Benjamin gets out of the house and does stuff, was very engaging and I have no complaints, except that again, Daisy in her twenties didn't quite look right. I thought the attack on the sub and the machine gun fire was especially visceral. And in the last third, I was left thinking what an effing jerk Benjamin was to Daisy and Daisy to her daughter. It was during this phase that I wanted to look at my watch, wondering when this movie would end.***
Throughout, I was trying to work out the timeline and everyone's relative age, and I'm not convinced that it all works out. Too often, I just couldn't tell how old Benjamin was supposed to look and I was distracted trying to figure it out based on his chronological age. Another bit that bothered me was how the letters and postcards sent by Benjamin to Daisy and her daughter ended up in his diary. This implies Daisy put them there--notice that it is missing the photos and other inserts when she is handed the diary--but at other times, she indicates that she hadn't read it. It makes sense to me that she would have read it--all of it--and may even be responsible for the missing pages.
This film has a lot in common with Forrest Gump. A titular male hero is doesn't fit into society. He goes on adventures and has experiences well outside the mainstream. A childhood love he can't connect with, but eventually does. A loving, single mother who accepts him for what he is. A recurring theme of death. Their Southern roots. Hell even the boarding house vs. retirement home stands out to me. Both films involve watching the hero's journey through a number of smaller stories, all strung together in one amazing/unbelievable life. This does mean we see scenes that aren't really needed to the overall story or seem too contrived but are still enjoyable. And when woven together, end-to-end, they make for an entertaining, but not incredibly deep, movie going experience.
* Thankfully, still baby-sized.
** At some point, growing smaller, breaking the symmetry of his birth. He should have died a baby the same physical size as an old man.
*** Behind us, a few rows back, there was a young couple in their twenties (I'm guessing), who were getting punchy at the end. Their giggles and guffaws started being distracting. And when the credits started, he said something to the effect of "finally!"
The curious thing about this Benjamin Button isn't that he was born old* and grows young** but how my attention drifted while I watched it. During the first third (I'm totally guessing), I was distracted by how characters just didn't quite look right. Benjamin's appearance was off, but since he was supposed to be weird old guy, I'll give it pass; however Daisy was a mess. As a young girl, she looked like CGI and her speech didn't match her lip movements. The middle third, when Benjamin gets out of the house and does stuff, was very engaging and I have no complaints, except that again, Daisy in her twenties didn't quite look right. I thought the attack on the sub and the machine gun fire was especially visceral. And in the last third, I was left thinking what an effing jerk Benjamin was to Daisy and Daisy to her daughter. It was during this phase that I wanted to look at my watch, wondering when this movie would end.***
Throughout, I was trying to work out the timeline and everyone's relative age, and I'm not convinced that it all works out. Too often, I just couldn't tell how old Benjamin was supposed to look and I was distracted trying to figure it out based on his chronological age. Another bit that bothered me was how the letters and postcards sent by Benjamin to Daisy and her daughter ended up in his diary. This implies Daisy put them there--notice that it is missing the photos and other inserts when she is handed the diary--but at other times, she indicates that she hadn't read it. It makes sense to me that she would have read it--all of it--and may even be responsible for the missing pages.
This film has a lot in common with Forrest Gump. A titular male hero is doesn't fit into society. He goes on adventures and has experiences well outside the mainstream. A childhood love he can't connect with, but eventually does. A loving, single mother who accepts him for what he is. A recurring theme of death. Their Southern roots. Hell even the boarding house vs. retirement home stands out to me. Both films involve watching the hero's journey through a number of smaller stories, all strung together in one amazing/unbelievable life. This does mean we see scenes that aren't really needed to the overall story or seem too contrived but are still enjoyable. And when woven together, end-to-end, they make for an entertaining, but not incredibly deep, movie going experience.
* Thankfully, still baby-sized.
** At some point, growing smaller, breaking the symmetry of his birth. He should have died a baby the same physical size as an old man.
*** Behind us, a few rows back, there was a young couple in their twenties (I'm guessing), who were getting punchy at the end. Their giggles and guffaws started being distracting. And when the credits started, he said something to the effect of "finally!"
Labels: Movies
posted by Patrick at 9:33 PM
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