Reviews by Matt

I have been sitting here for the last 10-15 minuets trying to work out a good opening for this review. Maybe it is because I just got back from a trip to Ohio, maybe it is because I wish I had slept better or longer last night, maybe it is because I am also watching the Wild Card games today. Whatever the reason is, I cannot write anything good enough to start off this review. Instead you are left with the proceeding rant that has no connection to anything else in the following review of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

Hurricane Katrina is closing in on Louisiana. An old woman lies dying in a hospital bed while her daughter sits by her side. The dying woman tells her daughter to get a notebook out of a box and read it to her. It is the story of a man named Benjamin Button.

Benjamin (Brad Pitt) was born with an unusual defect: old age. When he was born he had all the afflictions and the looks of someone in his 90s. When his father sees that his son he leaves him on the step of a retirement home. There he is taken in by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) a woman who works there. He meets Daisy (Cate Blanchette) and falls in love. He goes off and works on a tugboat and she pursues her dream of dancing.

That was one of the worst plot summaries I have ever written, and I have written some bad ones. I hate writing them because it is always the hardest part. I never know what to do because some of the information could spoil the movie, some may not be needed. This was especially hard because, as hard as they usually are, it is tougher to boil down a 2 hour and 45 minute movie to a paragraph or two.

One thing I have to mention is the special effects. Brad Pitt’s face was digitally mapped on to the bodies of the old men who played Button in his early years. It looked amazing. You could tell it was Brad Pitt even with all the age added to his face. The same was done with Blanchette when her character got older. The make-up job made the movie more stunning and more believable. I wanted to see more of what they would do as Button got younger, but that part was essentially skipped.

I liked the performances by both Pitt and Blanchette, but I loved the performance from Henson. She took in Benjamin as a baby when no one else would. She did not think he had long to live and wanted him to be loved while he had the chance. She is unable to have children of her own and loves Benjamin like he was her own. She makes him feel at home no matter what. No matter where he has been, what he has been doing or even how long he is gone, he always receives a warm welcome from his mother.

The effects alone are worth the price of admission. For a movie that is a long character piece, the effects are incredible. The runtime may bother some, but if you are willing to sit through it, you will not be disappointed.

8 out of 10
Rated: PG-13 for brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking
159 min