This is a kindly, sweet-hearted film, filled with some truly touching stuff about impermanence, love and loss. But at a languorous 165 minutes it’s old before its time.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
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Reviews Counted:221
Fresh:157
Rotten:64
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an epic fantasy tale with rich storytelling backed by fantastic performances.
Rated: 12A [See Full Rating] for brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking.
Runtime: 2 hrs 46 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:06-02-2009
Synopsis: At once epic in scope and intimate in detail, David Fincher's THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is certainly the director's most emotional film to date (though FIGHT CLUB and SEVEN don't offer... At once epic in scope and intimate in detail, David Fincher's THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is certainly the director's most emotional film to date (though FIGHT CLUB and SEVEN don't offer much in the way of competition). Loosely based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, this romantic drama tells the tale of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), born in 1918 in New Orleans as a baby with wrinkles, cataracts, and arthritis. Benjamin will age backwards, getting younger as he watches those around him growing older. Included in that group are his adoptive mother, Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), and Daisy (Cate Blanchett), the love of his life whom he meets when she is just a little girl and he is an old man. They age in reverse, but despite Benjamin's globe-trotting adventures, their lives repeatedly intersect. The script from Oscar winner Eric Roth bears more than a few hallmarks in common with his earlier work on FORREST GUMP: both adaptations cross decades and continents. But BENJAMIN's script or even the fine acting aren't its most impressive accomplishment; the technology--both CGI and makeup--used to make Benjamin and Daisy age are remarkable, and makes the film entirely believable, but they're certainly aided by fine performances from both Pitt and Blanchett. The triumph of technology only serves to underscore the beauty of this film and of the love story at its heart. [More]
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas, Julia Ormond, Elle Fanning
Director: David Fincher
Director: David Fincher
Screenwriter: Eric Roth
Producer: Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Cean Chaffin
Composer: Alexandre Desplat
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Reviews for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an anodyne Hollywood film that offers a safe and sanitised view of life and death. It’s Forrest Gump goes backwards.
This bizarre American odyssey carries a lot of cultural freight, but fails to delivers it to a destination of any significance.
Fincher treats Roth's script with a visual bravura and narrative gusto far beyond the usual capacities of the Hollywood mainstream. Benjamin Button is a poetic, virtuoso feat, as eloquent and rapturous as CGI-era cinema gets.
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is not just a technical marvel, it is an epic piece of storytelling with an incredible attention to detail.
This sensational film is richly deserving of the lavish praise it has won from all corners.
Remove "curious" from the title and replace it with "twee and pointless", and you're close to it. What a incredible shaggy-puppy of a movie, a cobweb-construction patched together with CGI, prosthetics, gibberish and warm tears.
The anti-Slumdog Millionaire: a film that's stately, tasteful and genteelly melancholic rather than fevered, rollicking and euphoric. It's a film about time that seems almost out of time.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button shows that whether we live life forwards or backwards, the outside is just a shell and it’s what we choose to do with life that sifts out the best parts from the worst.
Benjamin Button is an absolute masterpiece and is probably one of the greatest films of all time.
I found it agonisingly banal, twee and self-important - a dreadful sell-out to Hollywood at its schmaltziest by a director I have previously admired.
Whether you are young, old or somewhere in the middle, make sure you find time for this Saga saga.
Aptly for a film so concerned with time, Button is 13 minutes shy of three hours and just flies by. If this is Fincher selling out, can he sell out more often please?
An epic, melancholic romance that employs a multi-generational cast and groundbreaking visual effects. It’s a testament to Fincher’s skill as a storyteller that the film actually works, albeit sporadically.
An unusual conceit brilliantly executed. A moving work of golden fantasy poised just above the dark waters of our own mortality.
It is a tedious marathon of smoke and mirrors. In terms of the basic requirements of three-reel drama the film lacks substance, credibility, a decent script and characters you might actually care for.
If the film falls short of greatness, it's because Button remains too enigmatic.
Life, death and a love that burns bright and brief as a firefly… Only Fincher could lighten up and still turn in a film obsessed with transience, with mortality. Flecked with flaws, Button nonetheless stands as a monument to its maker’s talent.
This is a compelling and wondrous film. Yes it is a little slow at times, but this is an epic tale of a miraculous romance - and you can't rush such things.
Latest News for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
May 04, 2009:
RT on DVD: Benjamin Button, Bollywood Kung Fu, and a Special Twilight Set
Award season armchair jockeys should check out a few notable Oscar and Golden Globe contenders this week, including David Fincher's visionary epic film about a man who ages... More...
February 01, 2009:
Slumdog's Danny Boyle Wins DGA Award
Danny Boyle takes home another win for Best Director from the Director's Guild of America -- could Oscar gold be just around the corner? See who else was nominated this year in... More...
January 22, 2009:
Oscar Nominations Announced: Benjamin Button Leads With 13
The Oscar nominations for 2008 have been announced. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button leads with 13 nominations, while The Reader makes a surprisingly strong showing. The Dark... More...
January 15, 2009:
BAFTA Nominations Announced ![]()
The full list of nominations for this year's BAFTA Film Awards. More...
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