The “Magical” Case of Benjamin Button
Sometimes some movies touch you to the core and you really don’t know why you actually feel that way, you cant put a finger and say that’s the best part of the movie and that’s what makes it a masterpiece, you know something is there something magical but you can’t figure it out .The Curious case of Benjamin button is one such movie. It moves you and you don’t even know you are moved, you feel that lump in your throat without noticing anything extraordinary and that is beauty of this movie. It has all that makes it an epic but it’s not the epic nature but small little things woven beautifully between a curious and extraordinary screenplay makes you feel for the central characters.
Benjamin Button is ageing backwards and the movie is his life journey and various experiences he has with various people. Benjamin spends his initial years in an old age home where he is looked after by a lady called Queenie.This initial part of the movie depicts how Benjamin spends his days listening stories of all these old men and women, how he learns from their experiences and how there is so much of knowledge in those old brains ready to be learned but seldom do we give ourselves that chance. there are some magical moments during this part for instance a lady who dresses fancily every day ,an old man who tells different stories of how he was struck by lightning. In one such scene, when an old women is cutting Benjamin’s hair and Benjamin rather innocently tells her that he thinks he is ageing backwards , and the lady replies if that’s the case she feels sorry for him since he will see everyone he loves die before he does. Its during this period when Benjamin meets love of his life, a child then – Daisy later played by Cate Blanchett.
Unlike his previous film(which is based on real story), david fincher has created a marvellous fantasy which is realistically shot but its Eric Roths screenplay that holds you for about 2 hours and 45 mins.It gets slow but never drags, it takes its own sweet time to tell a love story. I don’t know what’s with the sea, ships, river, boats but every now and then the story moves through these things. When Benjamin is on his tugboat in the sea for a long assignment he meets Elizabeth Abbott played by Tilda Swinton.Her story particularly touched me. She always wanted to swim across the English channel and when she was young she almost did it but the rain caused the hindrance then. Its later after many years we are shown through news that she becomes the oldest one to cross the English channel. There are many such small yet significant characters like the tugboat sailor who thinks he is an artist and to show his father that he is not just another sailor he tattoos himself with his own hands. Later Benjamin almost fights in world war two and when he returns back he meets Daisy again, who is now a successful dancer.
At the core the story is really a simple love story between two people who are ageing in opposite directions. As mentioned earlier there are small things that are essence of this movie. During the later half of the movie daisy has a car accident and breaks her leg. The way it’s shown in the movie is nothing short of a masterpiece. You know there is going to be an accident and yet to fall for it, you are hooked by the narration of Benjamin who tells how small things matter. He tells you that a girl leaves her coat at her room and goes back to get it when she receives a call, and then when she comes down she calls for a taxi driver who doesn’t show up because he is having a breakfast and then when she finally gets into a taxi , a man almost comes in front of the taxi, who by the way got up late since he forgot to set the alarm and is late now, and then the taxi proceeds and we see Daisy leaving from her dance class but waits for her friend who is tying her show lace which breaks and after fixing they leave through the back door and it is then daisy is hit by the taxi. Benjamin voiceover tells us how, if only the girl had not forgotten her coat, if only the taxi driver had not gone for his breakfast, if only the man had set his alarm right, if only daisy’s friend’s shoe lace hadn’t broken, if only…..”Life being what it is a series of intersecting lives and incidents out of anyone’s control”.
Rarely do we come across such dramas where the story and characters take precedence over special effects and melodrama and still rarely we will see a movie full of special effects and absolutely not notice it. How the hell did they make Brad Pitt look so young in the later part? By the way Brad Pitt nails this and is easily one of his career best. David Fincher has a knack of extracting best from Brad Pitt, he did it with seven, and he mastered it with fight club and absolutely nailed it with curious case of Benjamin Button. Watch this masterpiece as soon as possible I am sure there will be moments which will stay with you for a long time.
Tags: Brad Pitt, curious case of benjamin button, David Fincher, eric roth
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Very well written. This is a long movie but pays rich dividends. Though the special effects are top notch, it is the love story at the core that makes it such a powerful movie. In fact, though the first half was top heavy with effects I was getting underwhelmed. But the second half especially the last hour is so powerful, that it somehow put the first half in perspective. Very good movie, something completely different from David Fincher’s body of work.
the movie was very boring and long. certain scenes were good though like the accident scene. but i was very disappointed with the film. i think david fincher got really confused with the script. he tried to go the forest gump way not realising it is not forest gump.
great write up anand. i liked the movie for the same reasons you mentioned.. something just inherently good about it. the story-telling was topnotch, and i think in the end that’s what did me in.
Thanks sougata mitra…and yes it is completely different from David Fincher’s body of work…
“In fact, though the first half was top heavy with effects I was getting underwhelmed”
exactly my sentiments ….
kevin ,
The move was very long , agreed …but the movie was boring..nah ..and i think David fincher did a great job and did justice to the screenplay …
Thanks Striker,
exactly thats what matters in the end – good story telling …
totally agree with you , the movie was very good, though its difficult to put a finger on what made it special. But was it a great movie ?.. im not yet sure , but it surely had a magical feel
There was something which made me love the movie and inspite of the long screen time , seemed to be worth the time invested.
Nicely written. I’m yet to watch it.
Thanks sasidhar , you have to see this one ….
I was bored-
ok not really bored, but it’s just too shallow.
Fincher is just not the type to do a sophisticated movie I guess.