Review

The age old saying that youth is wasted on the young is taken to new levels with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It’s the story of a man who ages backwards and who always seems out of place because of it.

The concept is intriguing and unique to say the least. Brad Pitt claims the lead role and does so effortlessly. In fact it’s so effortless I can’t seem to see what was so special about his performance, something for which he received an Academy Award Nomination. Cate Blanchett does a fairly good job as his leading lady but their relationship throughout the film comes off as irritating more than anything else.

In fact the creators of Benjamin Button have gotten so caught up in stunning backdrops of the different time periods and the amazing effects that turned Brad Pitt into a wrinkly old man that they’ve failed to get the audience’s attention on the story. The epic film is a full 166 minutes long, that’s two and a half hours of film which will drag in many places.

It’s not that the film was horrible but it just didn’t have that something that makes you sit up and pay attention. If anything it was a pleasant journey through the last eighty years of American History and little more.

Synopsis

“I was born under unusual circumstances.” And so begins “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: A man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. From New Orleans at the end of World War I in 1918, into the 21st century, on a journey as unusual as any man’s life can be, the film tells the grand tale of a not so ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds and loses, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time. Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures Present A Kennedy/Marshall Production A David Fincher Film, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas and Tilda Swinton. The film is directed by David Fincher. The screenplay is by Eric Roth, with screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord, based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The producers are Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin. The behind-the-scenes team is led by director of photography Claudio Miranda, production designer Donald Graham Burt, editors Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, and costume designer Jacqueline West. The music is by Alexandre Desplat.

Release Date

27 February 2009 (SA)

Cast

Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas, Tilda Swinton, Jared Harris, Elle Fanning, Mahershalhashbaz Ali

Age Restriction

16 MS

Director

David Fincher

Trailer

Tags: age, Brad Pitt, cast, Cate Blanchett, Ceán Chaffin, David Fincher, Elias Koteas, Elle Fanning, Frank Marshall, Jared Harris, Jason Flemyng, Julia Ormond, Kathleen Kennedy, Mahershalhashbaz Ali, release date, review, South Africa, synopsis, Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Tilda Swinton