dir. David Fincher
writ. Eric Roth from story by Roth and Robin Swicord, loosely from F. Scott Fitgerald's short story
feat. Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond
Benjamin Button is a slippery film, a fable too complex to reduce to a simple challenge to the problems of aging and difficult love. While it straps on too many frames, both the wraparound story of a stormy hospital room with a loveless Ormond and the Amazing Stories introduction with the backward-running clock proving pointless and ineffectual, it still manages to exude charm, induce curiosity, and exhibit originality in its exploration of a truly unusual life.
Fincher has become an expert at creating beautiful films that don't need to scream epic, but feed the audience gorgeous images intermittently. He slips in a stunning shot of soldiers running backward on the battlefield, bullets rewinding out of their bodies, then waits patiently withholding the trully stunning followup shots for Benjamin's travels abroad. He also captures the intimate glow of private moments. Revisit the interrupted love scene at the begginning of Zodiac and compare it to the secretive nighttime relationship between Benjamin and Elizabeth (Swinton) in the old hotel, both bordering on voyeurism yet offering a bit of the magic shared by the characters in those moments for the audience to enjoy.
It's hard to call Button a great film, lacking the resonance a three hour picture ought to impart. While I'm pleased that it didn't hammer home themes of aging and how it's never too late to change course, a risk given Roth's previous credit on Forrest Gump, it does need something more, a greater purpose. However, I wouldn't have guessed it possible to have numerous valid complaints about a picture while simultaneously enjoying the ride so much, clearly in the hands of great storyteller.
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