The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – a review

By | December 27, 2008
19 Comments

I saw Benjamin Button last night. My three word review is: “a beautiful disappointment.”

Spoilers from here forward.

…

Seriously, major spoilers.

…

  • Anonymous

    Brad Pitt didn’t play this movie from beginning to end..get your facts straight.

  • nick spina

    you are spot on with this review. A beautiful disappointment indeed.

  • http://wwwinterplanetarybeing.net A D Enstoss

    Button is a well crafted film.I finally can respect Mr. Pitt as an actor and his co star is a gift from heaven without equal. In 60 yrs. I have almost never heard a quiet yet full applause from the theatre audience.

  • Erin Krieger

    Yeah this movie left me very disappointed. I think the end especially missed the mark. This idea had been floating around forever and I think this movie missed the point; by the end
    I thought he would be a very wise youthful person, and that the proverb “the youth is wasted on the young” was going to come into play, but it didn’t. It also needed some serious editing; too many characters with no real purpose or explanation, and ridiculous, meaningless “symbolism” like the humming bird…what was that???

  • Peter Hughson

    I agree with most of the original comments: many wrong or mixed up messages like the humming bird. The ‘Pygmy’ was stated as a ‘bushman’ but wasn’t at all. It was a disappointment to read that the ‘real’ Benjamin Buttons was born in 1860. The original story line is much more believable – shame on those who rewrote it to make it ‘modern’.

  • http://thejacksack.com The Jack Sack

    Eric Roth scripted both Forrest Gump and Benjamin Button. Benjamin Button is self plagiarism at its worst.

    Thank you for an excellent review!

  • doctorj2u

    I loved the film, esp. the ending. Life is fleeting. Enjoy what you have when you have it.

  • https://www.blog.speculist.com Stephen Gordon

    Anonymous:

    I didn’t say that Pitt played the character from beginning to end. Get your facts straight.

    Doctorj2u:

    Well, I agree, there was an attempt to convey the message – “Life is fleeting. Enjoy what you have when you have it” – in this film. The problem – Benjamin didn’t enjoy what he had. He hardly connected with anyone. He didn’t even stay with Daisy. When his own father finally reached out for him, he didn’t fully embrace him. He certainly didn’t embrace his own child.

    If you like that message I recommend “Bucket List.”

  • M

    I think what would have been a better ending.. at least in the way that it was shot and written would have been that the baby did not die, it went to sleep and instead of replacing the clock ….some one decided to fix it and that meant that the baby would grow up to live a life again… and that baby was eventually Caroline… and the reason why Daisy made Caroline read the book was because she wanted Benjamin/Caroline to remember his whole life before…. killer ain’t it!!!! Ofcourse there would be some plot holes, but I am sure they could have covered those.

  • https://www.blog.speculist.com Stephen Gordon

    M:

    Wow. Yeah, that would have been better.

    Or how about his variation: Caroline and Benjamin are at Daisy’s death bed. Caroline has raised Benjamin as her own child (after that clock was fixed), they slowly get the mind bending news that they are father, daughter as well as mother, son.

    As for why he went missing during her childhood – how about he was kidnapped for testing in some laboratory. With his lifetime of experience and 20 year old body, he manages to escape from the lab in, say, 1985. He continues to reverse age into childhood. Daisy takes care of him as he gets closer to death. Something clues her in that the clock is the key. She fixes it to run forward just as Benjamin is about to die.

  • http://www.coffeerama.com coffee fiend

    Benjamin Button was very Fincher-esque… almost as good as his other stuff if not for some nagging plot holes

  • JM

    I could not agree more. I thought this was a beautiful movie but such a lame disaster. The entire concept of old to young is ridiculous, espcially since the entire movie was so serious. The fiction of this ‘rare disease’ just doesnt flow with the movie.

  • http://htp://www.nationwidedr.com/ debt relief

    I agree as well. It was an increidbly well made film but emotionally it bombed.

  • Jeremiah Frost

    First off, you’re right. It did not take long at all for me to say, “Wait a minute…This is a really weird version of Forrest Gump…”

    Also, I too wondered why he was an infant-sized infant. It’s illogical.

    Another thing, the connection to the clock never made any real sense to me. What WAS the connection, besides the reverse running?

    And what about that hummingbird? Oh well…Sillyness..

  • Fellow reviewer

    Thanks for this review… I am writing a review right now for my school newspaper and I can’t say I enjoyed “Button” as much as the whole world. Nothing really happened in his life, all he did was sit around while watching and waiting for other people to have more interesting lives. Very, very uneventful plot. So glad to here there are some sane people in this world who do not just buy into idyllic portrayals (I can’t deny that it is beautiful cinematography and visual effects) just for the sake of romantic “aww”-ness.

  • Anonymous

    how old was benjamim button when he died?

  • cb

    Lighten up people..it is just a movie. It is not inspired by a true story or a documentary. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie maybe because I did not over-analyze like the posters here did. I thought the whole idea was interesting. I wish there was this much argument over important issues like they way the present administration is ruining this country. Now that is something to get riled up about…think about it.

  • Jdias

    This review was probably the most accurate review of the movie I’ve read. There were huge plot holes in the film, and I just wish they thought more about the execution of what could have been a really great movie. I walked away hugely disappointed. Whoever nominated this film for awards or gave it rave reviews doesn’t understand crtical thinking.

    I understand “it was just a movie”, but I like movies without gaping plot holes, which don’t lack continuity, and where each part of the movie is relevant (all of which don’t apply to Benjamin Buttons).

    “Lighten up people..it is just a movie”…
    I like fiction. But when a fiction movie doesn’t even make sense, I draw the line.

  • Sinai

    i am going to remember this great film till the day i die. very interesting