Sunday, February 01, 2009
100% Buttoned
'The Hardest Button To Button,' is a charming song title by the White Stripes, and it amuses me since I needed two viewings to see 100% of the unusual and compelling 'Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' a life story whose protagonist is born a old man and grows young over 80 years meeting death as a newborn. Most of you know that I saw it in late December with my family in Arizona, and slept through most of the first half. The Curious Case of Aaron Holsberg was that I felt I'd seen a complete, coherent, and very touching film, just from the first 20 minutes and final 90 minutes of the 166-minute film. I was very exhausted at year-end. Five weeks and 13 Oscar nominations later, I finally saw the whole film and I appreciate that it deserves every single second of those 166 minutes.
First, hats off to the writers for creating such a substantial film from F Scott Fitzgerald's very minor short story.. Not since 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' has a screenwriter made an emotional masterpiece out of a great author's trifle... The acting is excellent, if anyone ever doubted Brad Pitt's range and depth. Less surprisingly, Cate Blanchett is terrific throughout and Tilda Swinton's 20 minutes are indelible.
The 20th Century is a supporting character and is very-well rendered, through the lens of New Orleans. The old folks' home where Button grows up is a wonderous and insightful as Gabriel Garcia Marquez' finest strokes of magical realism...
It's a stunning technical achievement. They photographed hundreds of Brad Pitt's facial expressions from every possible angle to re-create him convincingly at various stages of 'seniority' and as the strange old-man-infant and old-man-child... Toward the film's end, he looks very hot and believable as a twenty-year-old...
Oh, just go see it if you haven't... Here's the preview....
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