Saturday, January 24, 2009

So I Went and Saw The Curious Case of ... Button



Well, I went and saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button yesterday (in lui of my afternoon nap).
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Was it good? Yes.
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Was it great? Depends on your patience.
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It is a long movie. If you go waiting to see hot Brad without a shirt, you have about 90 minutes before he nudes up. You will be dissapointed.
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It is truly a quiet movie that is really moving... if you are willing to sit through it.
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Here is the thing. The movie is "about" love and life. It is about accepting age, accepting fate and embracing what you are given.
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There are probably more than a few ways to do this. One is a TV series method - where you learn to enjoy and "feel" characters over time. A movie doesn't really have that luxury. Then there is the Steven Spielberg method - where he just tells you over and over and over "how" to feel. It is a method that most people seem to like, but I find very artificial.
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The C Case of B Button chooses an altogether different method. In the case of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, the viewer is already familiar with them - at least their appearance. So the filmmaker is free to let their emotions grow onscreen and things happen without hitting you on the head with it.
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As Cate Blanchett gets old or Brad Pitt gets young - we are already so familiar with their faces that the visual clues are almost subliminal. The story, and it's many inducements to fully enjoy life as it is given, can be more subtle because we feel the march of years on these familiar faces.
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The fact that their voices, while familiar, aren't an everyday input as much as their faces are, makes their stories more poignant. However, even with those faces, the movie's method requires you to SEE their stories in order to fell them, not just be told how the characters feel.
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Make no mistake, it is a 3 hour life story that frustrates with a few missteps. The biggest being a reliance on storm imagery that never really works, and the second being the use of Hurricane Katrina to book-end the piece that seems stupid and artifical.
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Finally, if Brad Pitt's voice bugs you avoid at all costs. He is a constant presence that both stars and narrates the story. If, like some folks, that slow, easy, low pitched cadance he has makes you a little weak in the knees - then see it.
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Ultimately, I loved it. And I say this knowing it will drive a lot of people crazy. It isn't Brad's best movie (that would be Twelve Monkeys - where he really did deserve an Oscar), but I did think Cate Blanchett was about as good as I have seen her in a much less showy role that Queen Elizabeth. The supporting old folks, his mother works in a home forthe aged, are well used and excellent in the small but sometimes critical, roles. And Tilda Swindon, making a very small part, looks beautiful - something you never really say with her!
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As for Best Picture.... It's no Milk - but like I said Milk was a personal time for me and I can be no judge of it. Benjamin Button is certainly better than The English Patient - at about the same pace.