The curious case of Benjamin Button should be a great film. It has spectacular cinematography, rounded full characters, with some fine, if necessarily mannered acting from both Pitt and Blanchett that rounds out the characters, and generally steers just clear of showboating throughout. The concept itself is sky high, and is backed up by some fantastic effects. As anyone unfortunate enough to sit through 10,000 BC knows however, CG does not make or break a movie, and this is one case that adds up to spectacularly less than the sum of its parts.
The main problem here is that the whole thing drips with so much schmaltz you feel like gagging throughout, and it detracts from what otherwise would be a funny, and rather sweet love story. The normally solid David Fincher seems to be suffering from a case of the ‘Green Miles’ throughout, desperately tugging at heartstrings with the conviction of someone who knows they can squeeze out an extra Oscar nom with every tear from a Hollywood crowd desperate to prove its worthiness this season. It’s a recurring problem, and just as ‘Eternal Sunshine’ spawned a generation of girls with home died hair, desperate to prove they weren’t a concept, this will no doubt give us a huge group convinced that they won’t be in love until they’re at least 40.
That said, the film does occasionally live up to its tag line, having fun moments throughout (Teddy Roosevelt is particularly notable here) and it’s always nice to see Brad Pitt the actor. Unlike the titular button though, the ladled-on sentiment means the whole thing ages before its time. Case closed.
