Merrick here...


So far, we've witnessed a seemingly endless array of positive BENJAMIN BUTTON reviews.


Here's a different perspective from Mike G.

BEWARE SPOILERS!!!

Hey, kids. There are spoilers in here, but nothing too surprising.

I was at a Fincher attended screening of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" the other night, and I figured I'd offer a contrast to the glowing reviews this thing has been getting. It's not the slab of Oscar bait that Cold Mountain or Crash (the "racism is bad" one) were, but it never gets over how clever it thinks it is and-- despite it's own opinion to the contrary-- just isn't very special, alternating between beating us over the head with its supposedly fantastical world and acting like it's all very ordinary when the story calls for it.

Fincher said that he doesn't consider the film to be a fable (Wikipedia tells me that he probably meant "parable" or "fairy tale" and, no, I'm not smarter than Fincher: I had to look it up, too), but how can it not be? The movie is about a child who's born an old man and dies an infant. It tells the story of how a blind Casey Jones makes a clock that runs backwards to give the country imagined hope of their dead sons returning from the Great War. Benjamin disappears for seven years to work on a tugboat There's an ongoing joke where an old man tells about each of the seven times he's been struck by lightning (although we never see all seven of them, it stops around five for a complete lack of a literal or moral conclusion). If it's not a fable, then what the hell is it? It's "Big Fish" with identity confusion. It's "Forrest Gump" taking its story as literal truth.

Fincher said that one of the reasons he doesn't consider it a fable is that the story isn't predetermined. It's very, very apparent where the film is going most of the time. Benjamin is born a sick child not expected to live past infancy, and he speaks fairly often about his own mortality. Plus, the film's frame story shows an elderly, dying Daisy and her raised-by-a-man-other-than-Benjamin daughter. The movie never decides how seriously it's going to take, well, anything (except in the middle, but I'll get to that). The tone shifts from goofy to serious to serious with molestingly disruptive bits thrown in as Fincher randomly decides not to take anything too seriously (most frequently, it's the lightning gag).

When I say that the movie is quite obviously impressed by its own cleverness, it's all in the telling, not showing of its main character. Shots of Benjamin that involve any kind of visual effects element are held for ponderously long times, and this occurs well into the movie. Rather than letting Benjamin live and breath as a character, these lingering takes make him a special effect. It's certainly impressive, but 1) takes you out of the story immediately and often and 2) aren't impressive enough to make you forget it's doing so.

Fincher said these things but, yes, ultimately he's just one more critic, and what he meant to do is irrelevant because it's what's on screen that counts. Regardless of what Fincher said he meant to do, the film never decides on what it wants to be. Scenes and whimsy discordantly and randomly meet, and they never do so in a way that suggests an overall flow. You simply can't tell a story about a man aging backwards and act like nothing special is going on when you feel like it, which is usually how the more serious moments are handled; they're not well integrated. And this is the pitfall Fincher stumbles into most of the time. It's tough to stop seeing Benjamin's story as something other than fantastic when every person he encounters marvels at his condition. We get it: enough.

Another problem is that Daisy is an extremely unlikable, shallow human being during the section of the movie in which Benjamin actually falls in love with her as an adult, and this is obviously a problem since a large part of Benjamin's life is his love for Daisy. She begins the movie as a charming little girl fascinated by Benjamin. When we see her years later as an adult, she's shallow and horny: talking about herself endlessly and fickly abandoning Benjamin because he won't sleep with her hours after they've reunited. Daisy's horribly boring and juvenile personality in these scenes is actual very accurate to anyone who, years later, reunites with someone they once carried a flame for and finds a person not nearly as special as they remember. But Benjamin remains interested in Daisy because the story needs him to be until it reaches their mutual romance at which point Daisy suddenly becomes very charming again.

"Button" does some things right. It's gorgeous looking for the most part (although I still think movie's shot on the Viper look flatter than they would otherwise) and the special effects are pretty decent. The film finds its footing in the middle: the portion of the film in which there are no fantastic shenanigans. The tone is consistent, and the whole thing just feels more truthful. It's a section in which we get a sweet love story descending into an inevitable tragedy that sort of works. Only sort of because we've seen it coming for so long and aren't completely invested in the characters. It's tough to become engrossed in a movie when it's sitting next to you, nudging your ribs for three hours, marveling at itself.

Oh, and we do get the key shot I was hoping for: an elderly Daisy cradling a dying, infant Benjamin. That shot was the level of strangeness that we expect from Fincher. I don't believe he made this movie as Oscar bait, but he certainly needs a lot more practice with this sort of thing.

The acting is, overall, very good. Brad Pitt is one of the few major Hollywood stars who consistently reminds us that he's not just famous for being famous. Cate Blanchett is very good. Julia Ormond has been long missed and does the best anyone can with her underwritten character and frame story. Tilda Swinton is great as always. The glaring exception is Taraji Henson as Queenie, Benjamin's horrendous cliche of an adoptive mother. Every scene with her was like watching high school auditions for "The Color Purple." I'm pretty sure she never says "Massah Benjamin!" but she might as well because that's the first line of hers you'll quote when you're pondering her horrible character. I don't think it's her fault; as written, her character is very shallow. She's supposed to be funny and a moral compass of sorts but is, well, lame.

Walking out, I was reminded of a friend's reaction to Quantum of Solace: "Well, we certainly just saw A Movie."

And, ultimately, that's the film: a technically well made, well meaning film that's convinced it's premise is epic enough that it doesn't need to make an effort to be so and isn't. "Benjamin Button" does an excellent job of convincing you it has a lot more to it than it does, and I chalk that up to the skill of Fincher and crew. It's a movie that a lot of people will probably like but one that won't stand the test of time. Ten or twenty years from now, this is the second (i.e., Zodiac) Fincher movie that will be mainly be referenced when people recite his filmography: "Wait, I'm forgetting one..." "Didn't he make that Brad Pitt Button movie?" "Fincher made that? Oh, right, that was ok..." Just because a movie takes place over several decades, contains the death of one of more major characters, features sympathetic "freaks" and a moral compass who happens to be a black woman (a minority as a main character? Ground breaking!) doesn't mean its message is substantive. This is turning into a bit of a rant, but I find this kind of movie something that's very obviously trying to be Something More; a lot of people who don't see a lot of movies will quote their love of this one as proof that they know what they're talking about.

There you are. "Benjamin Button" isn't garbage, but it's certainly forgettable. It's better than both "Four Christmases" (I'm a good boyfriend) and "Australia" (I'm a good boyfriend), but can't hold a candle to "Slumdog Millionaire" or any number of other things you can find on DVD. Like "Bringing Out the Dead." I just saw that again another couple of times-- give that one another chance instead.

A final note: almost every question that was asked of Fincher was along the lines of: "I love your film and all your other films. I expect to see all of you on stage again at the Oscars..." etc. etc. This is David Fincher. The man made "Seven" and "Fight Club." If you don't have anything interesting to say, then don't say anything.

--Mike G.