The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Well, the good news is we have a front runner for film of the year. Yup, I took the unusual step of actually going to see a film on a Saturday night, quite honestly I can’t remember the last time I did that as I prefer to avoid the slack jawed, popcorn shovelling masses that infect cinemas on weekend evenings. Well, I stand humbled gentle reader (and yes I am slightly exaggerating with implied snobbery) as despite a charming youth sitting next to me who was translating certain key dialogue of the film to his girlfriend throughout the screening ‘The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button‘ was an ideal, epic piece of solid celluloid joy that was a treat to see with a big audience whom I could sense were just as absorbed in the movie as me.
So who is this unusual chap? The film is structured around the hospital bed reminiscence of Daisy (Cate Blanchett), to her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond) concerning her relationship with a man born under self proclaimed unusual circumstances, born on the day of the First World War armistice the infant Benjamin is abandoned on the steps of a care home by his grief stricken father whose wife died during the child’s problematic delivery. Compounding his grief is the baby’s hideous appearance, a freakish, wizened eighty five year old visage draped over the baby’s fragile frame. Adopted by the care home staff Button then leads a life in reverse, meeting Daisy at the age of seven or perhaps seventy depending on how you look at it, eventually embarking on his journey of life’s rich tapestry, fighting in World War 2, falling in love in Russia, returning to New Orleans to reunite with his family and capture the love of his life….
If you’re in the mood to be swept away, to be engulfed in a film that takes you out of your life for two and a half hours then this is the film you must see. The effects are outstanding as you’d expect from Fincher, they seamlessly blend in with the story in a fashion that does not deviate attention from the tale. Pitt is pretty good, I was unsurprisingly more enamoured by both Julia Ormond and an unexpected appearance by Tilda Swinton though as I didn’t know they were in the film due to my boycott of any publicity material. Blanchett is probably the unsung heroine of this production however, there is a genuine chemistry between her and Pitt which is essential as the films emotional core and main purpose gravitates around their lengthy relationship. There’s also an amusing running gag about getting hit by lightning. Look, trust me it’s funny OK?
One of my favourite books is ‘Winters Tale‘ and this is a film that strongly reminded me of the magical realist masterpiece, friends of mine who have also read the book will I hope take that as the very highest praise I’ve lavished for quite a while. There is a timeless, thaumaturgic and bewitching quality that is quietly harnessed with the films stately pacing and unobtrusive score. Like every one of Finchers film it looks absolutely terrific, deep chromatic blacks melding with the heavenly aura’s of the saints and sinners who cross Button’s path throughout his eventful life. There is also some lovely hand-cranked early cinema references throughout the first half of the film which is rewarding for us cinephile’s.
Despite one solitary look at the trailer I have managed to avoid all other reviews and comments on the film, it was therefore quite a shock to have a look through some opinions last night, it’s been quite a while since reviews have made me almost apoplectic with rage, the double whammy of Bradshaw’s evisceration of the film along with Kermode’s Radio 5 slating made me want to hurt something. I mean Jesus Christ I’m a cynical grump but making allegations that they only made Pitt be a certain age at one point in the movie so he could look cool when riding a motorbike is absurd. I’d heard the other allegation that because the film shares the same screenwriter it is little more than ‘Forrest Gump‘ with ‘A’ levels. Yeah, ’cause, you know god forbid anyone tries to make anything intelligent, anything cerebral. Everyone’s too stupid to understand a smart film eh? Finally, Bradshaws assertion that that the wholly innocent and innocuous friendship between Benjamin and Daisy when they are children is creepy speaks volumes about paeodphillia hysteria in this country, they are both seven or eight years for gods sake, they’re children!!! Just writing this has made my blood pressure explode. Grrr…..
It’s a deeply romantic film which never rationales its central fantastic conceit but does tackle the implications of Button’s unique condition, in its darkest moment Benjamin makes a heartbreaking decision which prompted a quiet sadness in the audience. You can take from the film what you will, a treatise on time and age? love and death? mortality and loss? It’s up to you. I particularly enjoyed the sense that we conclude our lives as we began, confused and scared, reliant on the kindness and selfishness of others. I don’t know about you but when it’s my time to exit planet earth I intend to go the same way I came into this world. That is to say naked and screaming. A-hem….
‘Button’ marks quite a change of direction for Fincher, moving away from the edgy and challenging thrillers that have assured his pedigree until now although it retains of course his love of experimentation and innovation. I think ‘Slumdog’ will sweep the Oscars but he may be in with a shout on a split vote for best director, he certainly deserves it more that Boyle. So, in my usual conclusion here is a collection of articles and clips of Fincher’s previous work, there has been a wealth of material on the background of ‘Alien III‘ floating around at the moment which you may also want to check out. I have to say the premise of the next project he’s considering does not appeal to me, given that he’s shot ‘Zodiac‘ and ‘Button‘ pretty much back to back perhaps he’ll have a sabbatical and reconsider. Good interview here, skip the first few paragraphs though as it does contain spoilers.
Films To See In 2009
It’s a tight run race for most anticipated movie for the Mint in 2009 with some major league big hitters returning to the screen from all strata of US film and a couple of foreign numbers that sound terrific. So on with the show;
‘Tree Of Life‘ – Terence Malick is back and it quite simply doesn’t get much better than that. He’s moving at lightning speed these days, spending a mere four years between films as well as producing a couple of other projects in the hiatus. Plot details are sketchy (that was from last April) on this but it seems to center on the coming of age of a group of friends in 1950’s America. The cast is heavyweight with the likes of Brad Pitt and Sean Penn in the main roles, filming wrapped in August last year so no doubt Malick has spent the intervening period putting his meticulous touches to another visual poem. Like ‘The New World‘ this story has been floating around in Malicks cerebellum since the 1970’s so this will certainly be an opening night visit, to whet your appetite I’ve read that the intention of the film is nothing less than a metaphysical examination of the purpose of time. So, nothing too ambitious then….
‘Avatar‘ – The more I hear about this the more excited I get. James Cameron is back after a ten year hiatus with what sounds like the most ambitious SF project since ‘2001’. Plot details are scant but it sounds like it’s the tale of one man who gets pulled into an intergalactic war with an alien race who are able to possess humans. That’s not exactly inspiring (and probably deliberately murky) but when you delve into the approach that Cameron is taking in terms of incorporating photo-realistic CGI, 3D motion capture, miniature design and every other tool at the forefront of visual design then I for one am getting hugely excited. I’m going to go out on a limb here and claim that Cameron is aiming for nothing less than taking cinema forward into the 21st century by realising the full potential of the new technologies available to platinum standard, astronomical budget wielding directors and exactly how these technologies can be fused to transform the art form – think the ‘The Jazz Singer‘ and the introduction of sound, ‘The Robe‘ with the first introduction of the wide-screen format or the aforementioned ‘2001‘ and the use of mattes, process shots and miniatures which still pass muster today, 40 years on. Of course what is essential is that the story and characters are not dwarfed by the technology on show which is something Cameron is quite rightly acutely aware of, it will be good to see him back with Ripley as well. He’s actually hired Harvard and Oxford sociologists, linguists, ethnologists and the like in an effort to research and construct a believable alien species culture – that’s a positively Kubrickian level of pre-production. A long wait alas as it’s not due until December, here is the first teaser video. EDIT – OK so the teaser says Summer 2009, looks like they may have brought it forward. I ain’t complaining…
‘Public Enemies‘ – Michael Mann is back and seems to have taken a new direction, climbed into a time machine and taken his unique approach to the crime milieu back to the 1920’s with a thoroughly amazing cast. Details are sketchy, there’s no trailer or other promotional material to speak of as yet but I’m sure it will be another great crime film with a stunning evocation of the jazz age, a trademark examination of the blurring of lines between the criminal and legal, some terrific production design with nods to the rich vein of American gangster movie history coupled with some cunning film noir visual motifs. Here is a great article on Mann and the influence of the genius that is Edward Hopper on his work. I expect more of the same given the ‘Public Enemies’ time period.
‘The Road‘ – Cormac McCarthy’s dystopian masterpiece gets the big screen treatment with this adaptation of his post 9/11, post Katrina global-warming Armageddon fable. I can’t think of a better marriage of subject matter and director, if anyone can get those bane blasted landscapes visualised, if anyone can master the chilling nature of humanity reverting back to a medieval era of utter brutality with that tangible sense of absolute despair that permeates the novel up on then it’s John Hillcoat, the brilliant director behind ‘The Proposition‘ and cult ‘Ghosts Of The Civil Dead‘ which is a tough, tough movie. Viggo Mortensen is perfectly cast as ‘The Man’ with newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee as ‘The Son’, it should be interesting to see how they tackle some of the religious subtleties of the novel. ‘The Road‘ is one of the most brutal yet moving books I’ve ever read, I really hope they do it justice.
‘Let The Right One In‘ – has been getting universally amazing reviews and is hotly debated on many of the podcasts I frequent, it’s very irritating when like me you do everything humanly possible to avoid spoilers of even the smallest kind. Also annoyingly the damn thing isn’t out until April February in the UK and I refuse to torrent it as I’m pulling the purist card on this one, if it’s half as good as the reviews make out (it even got on the Sight & Sound best film list for 2008, quite a rarity for a ‘genre’ picture) then it’s a must see cinema jaunt. It also looks very much like a ‘winter’ film so I’m mystified why it isn’t getting an earlier release given so I’m quite glad the release has been moved forward in order to exploit the critical kudos that would have dissipated over the next few months. The brilliant Kim Newman said this film has the most ‘heartwarming massacre of children ever seen in a movie’ and that’s good enough for me.
‘Tokyo Gore Police‘ – Is there anything more refreshing than some total, utter Japanese lunacy that makes you want to have your eyes exorcised following a screening? This was premiered in 2008 at the London Frightfest festival but they had already sold out by the time I got round to booking tickets such was the anticipation of UK genre fans. It’s the first picture that Japanese special effects guru Yoshihiro Nishimura has directed and I’ll think you’ll agree from the trailer (massively, utterly NSFW) that he has decided to really, really go for it. Sometimes I think you just need to throw away any sense of normality, of sense, of decency and submit yourself to the whims of a throughly deranged vision – this looks like absolutely mental nonsense, if that makes me sick then so be it. Hmm, it makes me wonder what happened to that Miike film I was looking forward to this time last year but screw it, I’m sure ‘TGP‘ will satisfy my regular fix of oriental phantasmagoric excess.
‘Watchmen‘ – Well, maybe we’ll get this in 2009 and maybe we won’t. Whilst the trailer(s) are technically impressive and I suppose you have to admire Snyder’s faithful re-production of the graphic novel panels I suspect this will suffer the same fate as ‘300’ and be a lifeless, soulless adaptation of a hugely admired comic book series. Let me be clear, I’m not being precious about the graphic novel – I love it, it was instrumental in my appreciation of the form that I used to follow diligently but even if you resurrected Kubrick, throw £200 million at the project and shot issue nine on Mars then it still wouldn’t be the same thing as the original book. It couldn’t possibly. It’s a different form of communication, a story that by definition can’t be told in a two, three hour movie but that is always the case with these dense literary templates – I’m fairly sure that some scenes from ‘Gone With The Wind’ or ‘Dr Zhivago’ were dropped despite their immense running time and the challenge to fidelity of the source material. But just to contradict all that I still can’t escape being secretly excited about this as like ‘300‘ at the very least we’ll get some cool imagery and fighting. I for one will be lowering my expectations accordingly in the hope I’ll be pleasantly surprised and ignore the fact that they’ve already changed the ending. Here’s my Ozymandias moment of 2008.
‘The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button‘ – David Fincher. I could of course deny my excitement and perhaps unrealistic expectations of every new project of his but this gets an instant Minty circle in the calendar based on pedigree alone. Based on a short story by F.Scott Fitzgerald the film is the tale of a man born at the age of eighty who matures in reverse, reverting back to middle-age and onward which is a premise that is rich in pathos and perhaps a perfect foil to the post Christmas, January blues. What I’m also look forward to with this is a two and a half hour epic tale that will hopefully weave in a unique take on cinema storytelling with some subtle special effects that have caused quite a stir over in the States for their ingenious afflections, I’m in the mood for something uplifting, reflective and worthy of immersion. I’m somewhat wary that it’s something of a ‘Forrest Gump’ type movie with early reviews citing Button as being something of an observer rather than protagonist in the tale but we shall see. C’mon, it’s Fincher so it’s always worth looking forward to…
One honorable mention to add to those listed in my previous post is ”Los-Cronocrímenes‘ which continues the recent tradition of interesting films emerging from Spain, the other good news is yet another Kubrick retrospective in London over February and March, this time at the BFI which even I think is a bit premature after last years Barbican season. Nevertheless this has got me all a flutter as has the ‘Kubrick Study Day‘ event that I’ve just confirmed tickets for which from the write-up sounds like six hours of bliss. Roll on 2009….
Minty's Menagerie 
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