Eric Roth won an Oscar for writing “Forrest Gump,” which has led many to suppose that his latest script, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” would be a similarly sentimental affair.
But this doesn’t factor in the icy fingers of director David Fincher, the technical wizard behind “Zodiac” and “Fight Club.” The combination of those two, plus the impassive presence of Brad Pitt, makes for a curious movie experience indeed.
The film is based on a minor F. Scott Fitzgerald short story about a man who lives life in reverse: born as an elderly baby, he moves toward youth as the years go by. Roth uses that premise very loosely; the film also resembles a recent novel, “The Confessions of Max Tivoli,” on a similar idea.
When Benjamin is born in New Orleans in 1918, his body is baby-sized, but wrinkled and infirm. Abandoned by his father to a caretaker (Taraji P. Henson), Benjamin discovers that he gets younger and fitter as life goes on.
Through at least the first hour of this 160-minute movie, the technical trick of morphing Brad Pitt’s head onto a small person’s body is a constant source of astonishment. (It’s some combination of small body doubles and makeup and digital sleight-of-hand — I don’t want to know how they did it, the illusion is so seamless.)
It could be argued that this trick actually distracts from the movie’s main themes. Maybe, although Fincher’s ability to work up a “how did they do that?” sense of wonder is worth something in itself.
At some point, “Benjamin Button” decides to make itself a love story, settling on Benjamin’s romance with a young dancer named Daisy (Cate Blanchett). They pass each other through life, of course: As she ages, he enters a new period of youth.
The strangest turn in the movie puts Benjamin mostly offscreen for his later years, when Daisy occupies center stage for a while. This enhances the love story and explains an elaborate framing device, but it takes us away from the interesting dilemma of someone facing young manhood with the wisdom of age.
The romance itself has some lovely things about it, and even better is a self-contained section with Benjamin (who goes to sea in his youth — in other words, when he looks about 60) sharing a liaison with a bored wife (Tilda Swinton) in Russia.
Even though Brad Pitt remains an inexpressive actor, in some ways he’s right for this role: Benjamin is someone whose circumstances have shaped him, rather than the other way around. Pitt passes through the film with the hazy distance of a “watcher” — although he does bring some vinegar to the early scenes as an elderly man. Maybe when he’s 70 he’ll be a great actor.
As ambitious and handsome as the film is, it doesn’t become more than a collection of scenes, nor does it come to a conclusion about the unusual gift its hero has been given. It simply rises and falls, like the life it doesn’t fully explore.
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