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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Movie Movie Reviews

Very interesting scene, but not new
Mar 19, 2024 10:18 PM

Amazing masterpiece. Brad Pitt was perfect. It was not just easy watching, but actors and music made the best.


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A very heartwarming movie!!!
May 07, 2017 11:22 PM

So when I was surfing throught the channels on the television the other day, this movie was being played on Star Movies. It started out pretty good and it also ended pretty good. Overall the movie is not for people who crave for spice in their films. This film needs a certain amount of patience for you to truly connect to the plot and the characters. Brad Pitt performed perfectly the role of a boy who is ageing in reverse. A truly exceptional and one of a kind movie. THANKS!


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debanjanmondal8MouthShut Verified Member
Bongaon, West Bengal, India India
Do you know how difficult it is to age backwards?
May 05, 2017 09:59 AM

This movie is an amazing creation of David Fincher. It all started around World War 1 when a child(Benjamin Button) born in the button family. Child? Or should I say the birth of an old man! When everyone thought that this old man is going to die, he fought against it and survived. Thanks to Queenie who looked after him when everyone was calling him a Monster.


As the days go by he stared aging backwards. He started becoming young. And that old man fall in love with a 10 year old kid(Daisy). And all throughout the movie Benjamin aged reversely and Daisy aged naturally. So, in the end of this movie when Benjamin was a little baby, he died on the lap of an old lady Daisy.


Casting:


Benjamin Button was played by Brad Pitt. He was awesome in this movie. He really nailed the character.


Daisy was played by Cate Blanchett. She was the perfect partner Benjamin could have gotten.


Queenie was played by Taraji P Henson. I liked her performance the best in this movie.


The music scoring was performed by Alexandre Desplat. I really loved his work.


I recommend all of you to watch this movie.


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zed_gmailMouthShut Verified Member
Delhi,India India
Heart touching
May 01, 2017 01:22 PM (via Android App)

The storyline and dialogues of this movie are awesome and heart touching. This movie is all about life. You can learn many good things and life lessons from this movie. This movie is rated 7.8 by IMDb . The actors perfectly played their characters, I really appreciate brad Pitt's acting skills.In this movie, Benjamin button is a character who is suffering from a weired disease in which he is aging backwards from an old man to a new born baby, I know it sounds funny, but movie is very good. You must watch it??


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Life full of Opportunities
Feb 08, 2016 11:20 AM

The essence of this movie is fantastic. It is a heart touching slow moving story. We need to watch this movie with lot of patience. But once the movie is over I was speechless. Very few movies would stay in our mind, this is the one among them.


Director David Fincher had made it very interesting because of the story.


A children born as an old man, he lived his life with backwards and died a small child.


Story


The movie start with first world war end period. America celebrate his victory for a city at the time a button company owner Thomas Button celebrated and came back home. His wife delivered an ugly child with wrinkles and died. He didn't like that child. He made attempts to kill the small child. Finally he dropped the child in front an elders home and left. A black woman showed all her love towards the child and named him Benjamin. Child looked like 80 year old man with kiddie brain.


When other children are playing Benjamin would hear stories from an old man. After that the movie's interesting part begun. He got a girl friend name was Daisy.


Days passed by Benjamin worked in a ship. After he married his girl friend Daisy. They were blessed with a girl baby. He showed more love towards them but he knows the truth that he would grew older as child. Hence he wants to leave them both so he said Daisy to marry another man and he left. Daisy being understandable wife allowed him to go.


A few years later he came to know his foster mother died. He returned back to his city. He looks like a small boy. He forgot everybody even Daisy. Daisy adopts her and he dies a small child in her hand.


The movie costumes, art direction, cinematography was excellent. They had brilliantly expressed Benjamin age reduction every scene.


The movie length would only test our patience.


Overall this movie creation was good. they had worked too hard.


I recommend to watch this movie


Reviewed by


KirukkanJagu


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Just awesome movie
Jan 25, 2016 04:56 PM (via Android App)

Really new concept. Brad Pitt is just awesome.


Cate Blanchet is so adoroble and gorgeous. And the clock and Benjamin send to be attached in a metaphorical way. The clock find backward as the winning of the inventor and a noble thought that their sons who died in the world war might get revived again.


But this didn't happened else an the day  end of the 2nd world war a baby was born with some problem. He would get younger as he got older. David Fincher directed this movie. This is a must watch movie


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bikaner India
Really very curious
Jan 19, 2011 02:37 PM

Movie begins with a old lady laying on death bed and movie rounds full circle with ladies lap as death bed for a child. . The old lady is Cate Blanchett she got a book which she asks to read and the daughter Caroline reads it and the narration takes us back to the night of Button’s birth, the end of the First World War, when he emerged into the world a wizened old baby.


Script in starting remembers you like forrest gump, because I found out both movies script is written by one person Roth. Same like forest gump this one is also masterpiece.Forest gump didn't touch me that much but this one do and baby very deeply.


After his birth, the baby Button is abandoned by his father on the doorstep of an old people’s home run by Queenie (Taraji P Henson).


Queenie’s difficulty in conceiving means she takes in the malformed infant on her doorstep without a second thought. The old people’s home is the last stop on the way to the grave, a suitable setting for Benjamin’s wrinkled childhood.People will always pass him by as he reverses along time’s one-way street.


Among the nearly dead, youth appears in the form of Daisy, the granddaughter of a resident who strikes up a friendship with the child-like old man.


Daisy grows up and moves to New York to be a ballet dancer, falling in with a bohemian crowd. Benjamin becomes a sailor on a tug boat.


For a moment, their contrasting lives - her’s artistic and beautifully pretentious, his one of honest toil and old manners- threatens a reprise of Forrest Gump’s and Jenny’s relationship which so polarised audiences. Gump’s love failed to leap across the divide of America’s culture wars, in which Jenny’s sweet self came a cropper in the decadence of the 1960s- the era that conservative America regards as the point of decline, as opposed to liberal America’s idolisation of the era as one in which suffocating hypocrisy and moral evils were swept away.


For Benjamin and Daisy, the 1960s is the sweet spot at which her ageing and his"you thing" meet in the middle, the only time they can come together as equals.


Throughout the tale, we return to Daisy on her death bed in New Orleans. Outside the hospital window, Hurricane Katrina gathers force. In this narrative frame, Daisy’s features are bald and sunken, one gnarled hand scratches at her chest. Cancer is adding the final touches to its grim portrait.


Her thoughts are morphine-loose and drifting back over the life she shared with Benjamin. Benjamin’s journey against the tide is a picaresque one, taking in marvellous diversions. In a hotel in the Russian port of Murmansk, he conducts dead of night liaisons with a diplomat’s wife, Elizabeth Abbot.


Tilda Swinton plays her with the high cheekbones, sophisticated hauteur and barely-suppressed longing that recalls both Billy Wilder’s worldly heroines and Celia Johnson’s duty-bound Englishness, a brute matter-of-factness concealing abnegated desires that only emerge in the witching hour.


One fascinating interlude among many, the film’s looping narrative arcs gives you the sense you could almost live in it - the epic David Lean-inspired framing encourages further immersion. Fincher and his team’s technical achievement in integrating the digital make-up within a lush but grounded reality is considerable.


The actors do interesting work with their characters at different points in their respective lives. Around Brad Pitt’s still, emotionally simple Benjamin, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton and Taraji P Hensonbring layered, inspiring, and intriguing performances.


Throughout his career Brad Pitt has strived to show that he’s more than just a pretty face, and in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button he unveils a whole gallery of them.As the titular hero who ages backwards, he starts out looking like Mickey Rooney and ends up a cherub with all the angelic wisdom that suggests. It’s a delicately shaded performance from the star and for director David Fincher it’s simply a stunning feat of film making.


Not only does it look great, but beneath the surface there is plenty of heart and soul as well. Life lessons come thick and fast but Fincher isn't shy of playing the situation for laughs either. Ascene where Queenie takes Button to be ’healed’ by a preacher is classic, but Pitt deserves much of the credit for managing to play this seemingly old man with the beguiling innocence of a toddler.


It could have been funny for all the wrong reasons but, even through mounds of latex, he gets it pitch perfect. The slow-burning love affair between Button and Daisy is just as skillfully handled taking into account the ostensible age difference when they first meet; Button, a senior citizen, and Daisy, just seven years old


Benjamin Button is an absolute masterpiece and is probably one of the greatest films of all time.


At almost three hours in length, very gradual pacing and a story line set in New Orleans in the 1920s this has allthe hallmarks of being an absolute snooze fest but by some miracle this delicate, beautiful, involving and fantastical story is utterly enchanting and will warm the smallest, deepest cockles of your heart.


It’s a film that you should make every effort to see. This film is not only Brad Pitt’s finest performance ever, it is director David Fincher’s finest work and he is a man with a very impressive movies.


Quite rightly Benjamin Button has been nominated for 13 Oscars including Best Actor and Best Motion Picture. This film is pretty much as perfect as a film can get. Button remains too enigmatic. Its emotional power comes from the in-escapability of the couple parting - she will grow old and he will get younger- but this is really about coming to terms with mortality.


Perhaps uncharacteristic of Fincher, he doesn't stagger in loser mentality, instead boldly celebrating the bittersweet nature of life.


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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2009)
Jan 02, 2010 09:37 PM

Woman: Would you still love me when my skin is old and saggy?


Man: Would you still love me when I get acne, start wetting my bed and am afraid of something downstairs?


If this conversation looks really odd to you, then that is exactly what you can expect in this out-of-the ordinary piece of art on film!


You thought that your life was weird, growing older, seeing yourself change and get wiser. Would you feel less weird if life was backwards?


Would you love to have an older looking body while your parents who looked after you, had a much younger one? Would you love to meet people in their childhood only to hook up with them romantically when they were older?


I have always wondered how it would feel to age backwards; maybe I would love it if I had someone to age backwards with.


So what happens when you are the only one ageing backwards? Watch this movie to find out.


This film is marked by a catchy narrative, thought-provoking dialogues, brilliant moments and outstanding performances.


This film is a must-see for all Brad Pitt fans(I am a big one). This is perhaps the only time you will get to watch him in all stages of life. What a treat! Apart from looking his usual delicious self, his performance leaves every girl wishing she was a part of Benjamin Button's life.


If you think I have said too much already, you are mistaken. You ain't know nothing yet!


My rating for this movie: 5/5


I end this review with a quote from the movie.


"Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss!"


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The curious case of Benjamin Button
Sep 23, 2009 06:35 PM

I saw this movie sometime back and I personally feel that Brad Pitt should have got the Oscar for his role in this movie and not Sean Penn in Milk. Also, the movie richly deserved the best movie which went to Slumdog Millionaire.


In August 2005, an 81-year-old Daisy(Cate Blanchett) is on her deathbed with her 37-year-old daughter Caroline(Julia Ormond) in a New Orleans hospital as Hurricane Katrina approaches. Daisy tells Caroline the story of a blind clockmaker named Gateau(Elias Koteas), who was commissioned to create a clock to hang in the New Orleans train station. After receiving news of his son's death in World War I, he continued work on his clock, but intentionally designed it to run backward, in the hope that it would bring back those who died in the war. After her story, Daisy asks Caroline to read aloud from a diary containing photographs and postcards written by Benjamin Button(Brad Pitt). Caroline begins to read as the story transitions to Benjamin's narration.


On November 11, 1918, just as the people of New Orleans are celebrating the end of the WWI, a baby boy is born with the appearance and physical maladies of an 85-year-old man. The mother of the baby dies shortly after giving birth, and the father, Thomas Button(Jason Flemyng), takes the baby and abandons him on the porch of a nursing home. Queenie(Taraji P. Henson) and Tizzy(Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), a couple who work at the nursing home, find the baby. Queenie, who is unable to conceive, decides to take the baby in as her own and be his mother, against Tizzy's wishes. She names the baby Benjamin.


Over the course of the story, Benjamin begins to biologically grow younger. In the 1920s, he makes friends with Ngunda Oti, a man who used to sit by a river, and Mrs. Maple, a woman in her seventies who loves music. He also finds out Tizzy's grandfather worked for John Wilkes Booth. In 1930, while still appearing to be 73, Benjamin meets a 6-year-old girl named Daisy(Elle Fanning), whose grandmother lives in the nursing home. The children play together and listen to Daisy's grandmother read from a storybook. In 1934, just as Mrs. Maple dies, Benjamin goes to work on a tugboat on the docks of New Orleans for a tattoo artist, Captain Mike(Jared Harris). In their free time, the captain takes him to a bar for a drink and to have sex with prostitutes. For the first time, Benjamin meets Thomas Button, who does not reveal that he is Benjamin's father. In 1936, after making friends with a man who had been struck by lightning 7 times, Mr. Daws, Benjamin leaves New Orleans with the tugboat crew for a long-term work engagement. Upon Daisy's request, he sends her postcards from his travels. While in the Russian port city of Murmansk, he writes to Daisy that he has fallen in love. He begins an affair with the older, married Elizabeth Abbott(Tilda Swinton), who used to swim as a 19-year-old. On December 8, 1941 she breaks it off, leaving him a note only telling him "It was nice to have met you."


While in Russia, Benjamin and the rest of the tugboat crew hear of the Pearl Harbor attack. Captain Mike tells his crew that the Chelsea, his tugboat, has been commissioned into the United States Navy. They work through the war hauling damaged ships until one day they come upon a ship carrying 1, 300 men that has been split by a torpedo. They attack the U-boat that had sunk the ship and ram it, sinking both the U-boat and the Chelsea. Captain Mike and every member of the crew except Benjamin and another man perish.


In 1945, Benjamin returns to New Orleans, and learns that the 21-year-old Daisy has become a successful ballet dancer in New York City, and that Tizzy just passed away. In 1947, Benjamin meets Thomas Button again, who is dying. He reveals he is his father and gives him his house, his button factory and other possessions, before he dies. In 1951, Benjamin comes to New York to meet Daisy at a performance, and finds Daisy has fallen in love with a fellow dancer, and tries to accept that their lives have separated. Daisy's dance career is ended in 1957 by an accident in Paris, explained as a series of seemingly unrelated events. She is hit by a taxi cab that breaks her leg in five places. When Benjamin goes to see her, Daisy is amazed at his youthful appearance, but frustrated at her own injuries; she turns him away by telling Benjamin to stay out of her life. In 1962, Daisy returns to New Orleans and reunites with Benjamin. Now the same physical age, they fall in love and move into an apartment together. They experience the 1960s together, in large part blissfully but increasingly aware of Benjamin growing younger while Daisy grows older. In 1967, Benjamin is informed that Queenie died and Daisy is pregnant. In 1968, Daisy gives birth to a girl, Caroline. In 1969, Benjamin, believing he cannot be a father figure to his daughter due to his reverse aging, and not wanting to burden Daisy with having to raise two children, sells his belongings, and leaves the proceeds to Daisy and Caroline. He leaves them both and travels to India. After reading this account, Caroline learns that Benjamin is her father. She is upset that Daisy took such a long time to inform her, but finds that Benjamin sent her a postcard from everywhere for each of her birthdays expressing his love for his daughter.


In 1980, Benjamin, now appearing about 30, returns to meet Daisy in her dance studio. The 53-year-old Daisy is now married to Robert Williams, a kind, supportive man, to Benjamin's relief. Daisy introduces Benjamin to Robert and the 12-year-old Caroline as a long-time family friend. Daisy and Benjamin then meet privately in Benjamin's hotel where they share their passion for each other, but they realize that their lives must remain separate. Benjamin departs again and continues to grow younger. In 1991, Daisy receives a phone call from social workers. They inform her that they found Benjamin — now a young 12-year-old just hitting puberty — living in a condemned building, and that they called her because they saw her name mentioned frequently in his diary. The social workers believe that he has dementia as he sometimes forgets that he had just eaten and cannot remember Daisy or much of his past. Daisy moves into the nursing home where Benjamin grew up and takes care of him through the 1990s as he becomes a confused 5-year-old boy with a growing temper to a 3-year old learning to walk.


In 2002, Mr. Gateau's old clock is removed from the train station. Shortly afterward, in the spring of 2003, the 84-year-old Benjamin, who is now physically an infant, closes his eyes as to sleep and dies in Daisy's arms. At the moment before Benjamin dies, Daisy claims to have seen in his eyes that he recognized who she is. Finally, the 2005 hurricane cuts the electrical system. As Caroline briefly leaves the room, Daisy passes away, her wish of seeing Benjamin again seemingly answered by a hummingbird hovering outside the storm-drenched windows, just as the sounds of the city's emergency sirens and reports of breached levees are heard.


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runu_aimerMouthShut Verified Member
Bhubaneswar India
Curious Indeed
Jul 08, 2009 12:02 PM

The movie got thirteen academy award nominations and won three...What a great movie to watch.The movie follows the Life of an unusual man Mr.Benjamin Button....who entered this world as an old man and died as a baby....


Benjamin Button's life begins at the close of World War I, when he is born with the body of an old man.As the years pass, however, Benjamin discovers that he is gradually becoming younger even as he grows older in experience and wisdom--


Apart from the storyline that is interesting, the picturisation is also very good with the back drop of winning the World war I and the boy born on the same day abandoned by father who is furios to see such a ugly and unusal child.....


A journey through a Man's Life....with a twist to the tale....How this curios thing happened??How did a women give birth to a old man and as age passed how did he become younger and younger!!!!Watch the movie you'll love it.


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You will indeed get Curious!
Apr 29, 2009 08:54 AM

A must see movie. The Curious case of benjamin Button will hook you up till the end. You might find the movie a bit slow at various points but it has its own charm. The setup of old America has been mind blowing.


Brad Pitt has played his part well. The different stages flashed in the movie has been very well written.


The direction has been very well done. The cast is perfect. I was astonished to see the life of old american people.The train station and several old homes and customs have been delivered well.


Minor details of the earlier century has been taken into account. I would recommend it to people who have the patience to watch a slow movie.I wasn't impressed to watch the movie just by its name but once I started I couldnt keep my eyes off the story.Revealing the story wouldnt be good at this point of time. I would rather ask the readers to just go and watch it.


It is a must watch Movie!


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A better tale of destiny and love.
Apr 26, 2009 11:03 AM

Benjamin Button’s case is not curious but insightful. Benjamin Button is a classic specimen study of evolution of human stages irrespective of age. Moving from birth to death, irrespective of size and wrinkles on skin. A progression of emotionality and rationality. The way experiences add to age and maturity of human existence.


As quoted here, from a moment in the movie:


“Daisy: You're so young.


Benjamin: Only on the outside.”


There are plenty of quotes from the movie. And just those are enough to describe what the insightful journey is about with ‘Curious case of Benjamin Button.’


*We are all different. Just that ‘different’ has been exaggerated(in this case – old age to younger Benjamin) to drive the point, of what makes you different.


“You'll see little man, plenty of times you be alone. You different like us, it's gonna be that way. But I tell you a little secret I find out. We know we alone. Fat people, skinny people, tall people, white people. they just as alone as us. but they scared shitless.”


"Everyone feels different about themselves one way or another, but we all goin' the same way.”


This story elaborates on how lives flow into each other leaving you feeling different than before. And making an evolved you or probably entirely different you.


“Sometimes we're on a collision course, and we just don't know it. Whether it's by accident or by design, there's not a thing we can do about it.”


“Along the way you bump into people who make a dent on your life. Some people get struck by lightning. Some are born to sit by a river. Some have an ear for music. Some are artists. Some swim the English Channel. Some know buttons. Some know Shakespeare. Some are mothers. And some people can dance.”


“And if only one thing had happened differently: if that shoelace hadn't broken; or that delivery truck had moved moments earlier; or that package had been wrapped and ready, because the girl hadn't broken up with her boyfriend; or that man had set his alarm and got up five minutes earlier; or that taxi driver hadn't stopped for a cup of coffee; or that woman had remembered her coat, and got into an earlier cab, Daisy and her friend would've crossed the street, and the taxi would've driven by. But life being what it is - a series of intersecting lives and incidents, out of anyone's control - that taxi did not go by, and that driver was momentarily distracted, and that taxi hit Daisy, and her leg was crushed.”


The greater role of interplay and destiny has been emphasized.


Did I ever tell you I been struck by lightning seven times?.


Blinded in one eye; can't hardly hear. I get twitches and shakes out of nowhere; always losing my line of thought. But you know what? God keeps reminding me I'm lucky to be alive.


*This story narrative elicits realizations and that realizations are the turning points in maturity.


“Some days, I feel different than the day before."


"Everyone feels different about themselves one way or another, but we all goin' the same way.”


“It's a funny thing about comin' home. Looks the same, smells the same, feels the same. You'll realize what's changed is you.”


*“I promise you, I'll never lose myself to self-pity again.


And I think, right there and then, she realized none of us is perfect forever.”


The story outlines the journey of human mind. Where one stops in this journey defines the course. This journey may be unique. But what one experiences is expansive and not unique. The experience is universal.


“I'm always lookin' out my own eyes.”


“Your life is defined by its opportunities. even the ones you miss.”


“For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”


The story revolves around the most important lesson of life: Love. The evolved Love. Love that brings destiny closer. Love that realizes the realization. Love brings the most important lesson of life. This is how you intensely come closest to your own existence. To experience what has touched you the most. To love and to weep the loss. What you experience is your take away.


“Benjamin, we're meant to lose the people we love. How else would we know how important they are to us?”


“You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went. You could swear, curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go.”


Essence:


*‘Life is a journey. You stop where you want to stop, for as long as you want to stop.”


We are all different. Just that ‘different’ has been exaggerated to drive the point of what makes you different.


What happens to you is destiny. What you make or break in other’s life is also other’s destiny. And that interplay is constantly at work to realize ‘the destiny’.


Human ecstasies and agonies are universal. Manifestations are different. Unless human mind experiences the extreme, it does not graduate to the next stage.


That it is great happiness to accept and be exactly the way you are, and it is ecstatic to feel accepted for exactly the way you are. And Loving is just about that. Only and only about that.


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Lucknow United States of America
When fiction becomes reality !
Apr 14, 2009 07:46 AM

One of the most well presented , well plotted and well narrated movies I have ever seen till date. First and foremost , every movie lover should at least see this movie once to know the true standards of cinema in its real sense.


Benjamin Button - Played by Brad Pitt. Benjamin is the name given to an old "infant" when he is found abandoned at a lady's house steps. He was actually born to a British family and his mom died while giving birth to him at the night of the offset of World War- I.


He looked absolutely like an old man in his 80's with wrinkled skin , wasted muscles and lean body. His father thought of him as a "monster" and left him somewhere alone , where he gets spotted by this young lady who does his upbringing like his real mother. Initially he has only his first name but later on when his father spots him and tells him the reality , he gets his full name.


Benjamin is so unlike other kids of his age. Why? Coz he progresses as his life moves forwards , in a way that he gets more younger with each passing day. He life graph starts in the descending order and thus when he gets 20 yrs younger , his friends gets 20 years old... the story is all about him seeing his near and dear ones reaching an age of maturity and then ultimately dying ...him being unable to choose and make friends coz of his unique and curious condition , his decisions about his fate and career.


His falling in love with a girl , getting married and then being scared of not being able to raise a kid coz he and his kid would then be of same age in terms of mind and body which would be difficult for his wife to handle and then his leaving his family with all his financial assets and bank savings for them , only to live a life of his own without troubling anyone.


The movie runs in flashback motion , read in the form of a diary by his own daughter when she grows up , to his aged and ill wife ( and her mother ) who is on the verge of death. By far , this would be Brad's finest movie ever. His expressions , his dialogue delivery , his screen presence is all worth a watch and am sure you would never ever see him again like this.


Daisy - Played by Cate Blanchett. The love of Benjamin's life ...right from the moment he saw her first. When he was 5 but looked 85 and she was also 5 and as pretty as a girl could ever be. Their love , chemistry and understanding is at par with the best. Very well played role from her.


Along the journey , Benjamin meets a lot of people , somebody's else's wife at a hotel whom he falls for , an old man who is struck by lighting seven times , his boss on ship who is full of life and dies at a war front there only , his real father who tells him why he left him after his birth and also passes him all his property and few more.


The movie is a real treat to watch with many scenes which are not to be missed. I really wish I was able to portray the movie in words , but I really think I don't have those standards to do so. I came out of the theatre crying and I feel myself too small to rate or comment on such a nice and commendable movie . It would be an insult to it already. Some might compare the accent of Benjamin to Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump and also the movie to be alike in some aspects but I really don't agree.


All those who want to experience the real cinema , devoid of nudity but at the same time shows and conveys love at its best , some humorous acts in pieces which are really able to make you laugh , real pain of death and feel of the helplessness in life , dramatic sequences threaded in a beautiful and breathtaking way , beautiful locales and that too in its black and white shades , last but not the least , a realistically fictional movie but it doesn't make you feel the fiction even for once. Hats off to the makeup artists and the actors who have done it so nicely. Overall , you will miss something if you miss this :)



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Great premise for a promising story...
Mar 16, 2009 02:56 PM

Growing younger as you age! A very interesting premise for a great story! This is the Curious Case of Benjamin Button.


The plot has a philosophy very similar to Forrest Gump's - "Life's a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get." Benjamin is abandoned on the first day of his life as his father can't stand his appearance. Brought up in an old age home, the movie shows how he changes as he grows up, his adventures, his love story and ultimately his last days and death.


While the movie manages to keep you glued to the seats for the better part, it is not treated very uniformly. Benjamin's love story with his childhood sweetheart forms the most time-consuming part of this movie, while his growing up years and, particularly, his last few years don't get much attention.


And there are quite a few chinks in the plot. For example, Benjamin is born with a body that resembles an old man. But he is very tiny when he is born. As he grows older in age, his body becomes more youthful and he also grows in size. However, around his 55th-60th year, he starts growing smaller in size and dies as a very small baby.


The negatives apart, Brad Pitt's performance is fabulously understated. He strengthens the other masterstroke of the director - people get used to Benjamin and don't treat him like a special person.


As I left the theater, I felt that I'd enjoyed the show but somehow 2 thoughts lingered-




  • Nothing memorable as in Forrest Gump.




  • This could've been a much better movie.




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The curiosity never ends!!!
Mar 16, 2009 02:16 PM

It started with a curiosity. The curiosity raised many folds once the movie started and remained intact till the end. And almost 24 hours after watching the movie, I still find myself curious.


The curious case of Benjamin Buttonis a mysterious tale of a man who aged back, downstairing from a torn out senectitude to the softness of infancy. A new born old man, born with deceases like arthritis, whose mother dies in labour and father abandones him, leaving him on the stairs of a nursing home for the old people, which is taken care by a kind lady Queenie...


The outer appearance of Benjamin is hard to believe, but the inner life of this character is even harder to grasp as Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button a shows a gives a different dimension to acting skill - showing the shades of hesitation in his own ways of expressing the emotions and feelings of a difficult character like this.


The complication of this character is the strange blend of old physicality with the adolscent mind, which has to be measured and re balanced in every scene, not only through the make up, but also through the infinitesimal nuances of the expressions.


A man, who is mystifyingly unreal in his own unique way, who rather than being treated usual, becomes a matter of everybody's curiosity (including mine) starts his struggle to keep the pace with the fast running world with the help of his weak legs and a stick. With exposures to the worldly things, Honey and Dew, the young old man starts his journey of the world and after learning the bizarre tales of the life, comes back as a relatively younger and stronger Button. Everytime he goes away, he returns even younger and stronger.


But the surprise factor in the movie is an other Character, Daisy, who plays the movie’s emotional epicentre. she is a character who struggles and feels all the changes, who grew up as a beautiful adolscent, who strangely finds love in the obnoxiously bizarre Button, and the love flourishes older as Button matures younger, until the Old infant Button takes a last nap in his lady's lap watching her for the last time, before closing his innocent eyes. Benjamin dies there but the love still keeps flourishing with the Lady's age and keeps growing till she takes her last breath while listening to her daughter, who reads for her the diaries of late Button.


Incredibly amusing is to see how a simple story of obnoxious life of a person is transformed to a Fairy tale that keeps the transformation ever going to so many strange dimensions--- a love story of an dying man and an adolscent girl... to the love story of a matured old man and a young lady........ to the love story of a matured couple........ to the love story of a young boy with a matured lady.... to the love of an old lady for her infant husband!!! Whew... Hats off to the director!!


The movie is more than two and a half hour long, but never seems like stretched. After all, an almost century long journey deserves this much to be described. Isn't it? Somebody told me, long time back a television program was telecast on National channel in which, there was a character who grew back. So, can there be any controversy about the genuineness of the idea?


Characters:


Banjamin Button:- Brad Pitt has played his role of a lifetime. Daisy: -Cate Blanchett plays a character which is as strong as Benjamin itself. Cate has performed it with complete honesty. Third most Significant character is the Care taker of the Nursing home, who raises Banjamin.. sorry, don't know her name.


Director: - David fincher who comes out with a surprise package of a totally different Genre of movie after movie like Fight club.My Recommendation: - Must watch for those who don't watch movies only for three hour fun, but for the incredible artistic effort, may it be acting, direction or Graphic effects.My Rating: - 4 out of 5. One mark is lost because of its length. Rest four marks, because it never lets you move your heads away since start till the end. Thumbs Up from me!


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Curious and Interesting
Mar 12, 2009 04:02 PM

I was pulled along by family to see this movie, on which I was actually dithering. However at the end I was glad that I actually saw it.........


THE PLOT seems to be public knowledge >>A man is born old and grows young as he ages..............The first half was a little drag and predictable and random. I actually dozed off for a few minutes in the first half...................However the movie gathers momentum in the second half, after the arrival of the 'Grown up' - Cate Blanchet.It is a treat to watch Cate Blanchet in her role in various stages and ages >> starting from 20 till 80.SHE IS ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT.......


..THE SECOND HALF >> brings about several touching moments, and one of our family teenager girl actually cried a lot at the end of the movie.........On the whole its quite a watchable movie and it has several touching - emotional and intense moments where your feelings are torn between various characters in the movie........Its a good movie for the connosiers of this medium.


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The curious case of David Fincher
Mar 11, 2009 10:51 AM

Was looking forward to this film by David Fincher who's directed movies of a different genre like Fight Club and Se7en. Two films that would always remain in IMDB's all time top 50 list .


And I was not disappointed. Won't discuss the story here as most would be aware of it and would quickly move to "why I liked the film" and why should you watch it"


His quest to explore the journey of life moving backwards on celluloid is captivating to say the least and would leave you with interesting and complex questions. Of certain events that you celebrate irrespective of your handicap, of certain events that you wish you were not part of because of your handicap.


It's a philosophical journey that works because of a captivating screenplay. It's poetry in motion. The narrative of the film absorbs you, slowly engrosses you and entertains you not in a very dramatic fashion but very a satisfying one with interesting references drawn such as giant clock moving backwards.


That's the strength of the film thanks to Eric Roth (Screenplay) who has movies like Forest Gump, The horse Whisperer and Ali to his credit. One could draw several parallels to this one and forest Gump. One such as being in love with the woman he met in his childhood and various important events such as ending of World war I and pearl harbour that are knit nicely into this story.


There's one sequence I thought was done well. The one where Daisy (Cate) meets with an accident. It's one which tells you what if someone had not missed a taxi, remembered her coat, took off on time, something would have not happened. Watch it as I thought it was neatly done.


So that's one of the strengths of the film, one where the story slowly draws you into his journey. The other is the "visuals". Some films are just made beautiful with an immense attention to detail and to how a film looks visually.


Don't think you could call it cinematography as there is a technical brilliance to it I thought in various sequences such as the visual of an almost crippled child that Benjamin's born into. The visual puts you off at the times and yet you wanna give that creation of god, an old child, a hug. Brilliantly done here I thought. The precision of the sets, costumes, make up, you get it..... is up there.


The third strength is the interesting relationships the movie explores about Benjamin and his mother and how his handicap doesn’t make a difference to her, about him and his dad who abandoned him in childhood and when he meets Daisy when she’s all marred and old. Should watch it as it leaves a strange feeling in you.


The performance: Forget Cate Blanchet as she's expected to be brilliant but Brad Pitt is a welcome relief here who does a splendid job and nice to see him in these roles where it isn't about his looks.


In an nutshell, watch the film for it's a engrossing and pleasurable tale and appreciable technique. It's not a glass of beer that you'd enjoy with friends but it's a like painting, an art gallery where you'd have to spend some time(2.5 hrs) to appreciate.


Maybe, just maybe the film could have been a little shorter. But do watch it nevertheless.


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THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON !!!
Mar 10, 2009 01:42 AM

A father of a military soldier, who is blind, has just lost his child. But, he has a clock, which runs anti-clockwise. Can you imagine a life, where everything goes backward, rather than moving forward? Sometimes, we also imagine, if we could have invented a time machine, then, we could have also rectified our mistakes committed in the past.



A boy was born, in the family of a tailor, whose occupation is to make buttons of the Blazers. The title of the boy’s father is Button. His father kept him in a staircase, and went away. But, one woman, really cared about that child, and gave the name “Benjamin”.



Wow, the boy has taken birth as an old man…hmm…this boy is a special one…no doubt about that…Look at that Father of the Church…he helped Benjamin to stand on its own legs and also to walk, but Jesus called that Father for an appointment. Have you ever seen a sweet girl, with blue eyes, wow, Benjamin, you are surely in love with that lady, but you look so old. Does not matter dear, that girl surely love you. Benjamin got another black friend, who is small in stature. Come on, Benjamin, let us go somewhere. Benjamin, just remember one thing, we all will be lonely for a longer period of time, so adjust your mind in accordance to that.



Who wants the job in this ship? Well, Benjamin is reluctant to do the job. Yes, the captain of the ship is really a great character to watch, with lots of tattoos in his body. Benjamin, please don’t forget that you are a gentleman, and you need a special gentle care on every weekend from special persons at a special place. Oh, Grandmother, what is so funny about this piano? Grandma says that it is not the music that you play; it is only about the feeling, which you experience while you play the piano. Surely, grandma, you have taught me the essence of this piano, but Jesus has called you also.



Where are you going Benjamin? Please don’t forget me, dear. Well, Benjamin you are becoming young day-by-day. Wherever you go, you take photographs and post it to your beloved in the form of postcards, with some messages in it. That’s great. Hmm….there is a woman, who tried to swim the English Channel once, but failed, but surely she was able to swim into Benjamin’s life. Benjamin, you have got the first kiss of love, from the wife of a minister. That’s really great. But, where is she tonight? She is not here in this hotel room anymore. Forget it man, the war is on…



Indeed, it was a fabulous war. That was the war between a ship and a submarine, which was a deadly one. The Captain sailed his ship to collide with that submarine. Hey, Benjamin, are you still alive? Yes, dear, can’t you see the humming bird flying there, after the death of so many people in the war? Now what? Let me start a new life again. Benjamin is young now, looking like a Brad Pitt. That’s great, but, that little girl with blue eyes is now a top-class ballad dancer. Hmm…she is really happy to see you Benjamin. So, the romance continues, right?



Uff, had there been some actions taken a few seconds earlier, then there would have been no accidents, my friend. But, you cannot change the destiny; it is in the hand of God. The beloved of Benjamin broke her legs. She cannot dance now, but can positively stay with Benjamin. Benjamin, your pregnant girlfriend fell down from the staircase. Will she be able to give birth to your baby child? Yes indeed, the healthy girl child is yours, Benjamin.



Your father has expired, Benjamin, so you have to sell your own house. Your mother is also dead. Don’t cry boss, that’s life, it has to move on, like that only. Benjamin doesn’t want to become a legal father of his girl child. So, his beloved found a husband. After long years, Benjamin came back again with a much younger look to his beloved, and saw his daughter, who is now a grown-up child.



See the fun of a reverse cycle. Benjamin is getting younger day-by-day. He has become a little child now, moving here and there, doing mischief. His beloved is taking care of him. One day, Benjamin became a small baby, and just closed his eyes for the last time.



Oh! Mom, there is a Katrina Hurricane approaching, as per the weather news. Maybe, we will be shifted soon, from this hospital. The Diary of “Benjamin Button” ends here. Now what? The old lady looked at the window, and saw a humming bird…Oh Benjamin, I know you have waited long for me in the heaven, don’t worry, I am coming…let me just close my eyes….surely this is“THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON”.



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Stands out for Artwork, concept and Brad Pitt...
Mar 05, 2009 04:15 PM

Not all stories flow the same way! This is one curious case where we see the life of the protagonist move backwards. It isn’t really an uncommon feeling for many of us that we don’t really want to age quicker. Also, it is sometimes funny to wonder what the world would feel like if we started growing younger! Believe me, after watching this Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Julia Ormond starrer, you’d feel better off living life the normal way. Born an octogenarian geriatric but the size of a baby, little Benjamin is abandoned to the care of an old age home. Unbeknownst to why he looks that way, the growing geriatric thinks that he is one among them, but has the curiosity of a child. Curiously though, as time passes, he doesn’t die as people expect him to but starts getting fitter and younger. The Oscar winning make up guys ensure that Brad Pitt unfolds onscreen in a slow flow. Romance too starts there when the blue eyed grand daughter of an old woman arrives to live there. The little girl, played by Dakota Fanning’s sister too seems to recognize that Benjamin is mentally her age. Soon, a teen’s mind and a fitter body takes him places as a member of a tugboat crew where he experiments wine and women, courtesy his Captain. By World War II, he has lived through war and has had his first love in Russia. Returning home, he finds Daisy grown up into Cate Blanchett, a ballet dancer, already in love with another man. Years later and an accident wise, she finds the two to be of the same age; romance blossoms, they live together and have a child. Benjamin realizes that his age trend would make him a playmate to his daughter than a father; he gives up his material wealth, including the old Button wealth for the two and goes globe trotting. Top class art direction, make up and visual effects make the nearly three hour movie a work of art coming live in a believable way but with a touch of fantasy. Spending five hours on make up each day, Brad Pitt fit into his role seamlessly. His acting and his looks during the younger stint deserve a ‘wow’. Cate Blanchett’s act is as impressive as ever. Others like Tilda Swinton and Oscar nominated Taraji Henson stand out too! Well, if the movie is so well made, then why not more points? That’s simply because stories just go on through time on screen and lack the zing somewhere. This reminds me of ‘Bicentennial Man’ that had the accomplished actor Robin Williams playing a robot working its way towards becoming human that also has a similar flow. Putting this aside, I would still safely recommend this movie for its story creativity and visual appeal.


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You can not enjoy life , walking backwards
Mar 01, 2009 12:02 PM

I have seen this film only because it has got an Oscar award this year for Cinematography or photography. What is so curious about this Benjamin?


Benjamin was born as an old man of about 67 years and slowly becomes young but from then onwards (in the film direction, I mean to say) he grows very fast to become a kid !! . Later to be an infant finally dies in the arms of his estranged wife. So this is really curious, and screenplay, direction, the beautiful heroine will keep up the pace to keep you with the story to the end of the film.


Not so much boring, in fact with a few turns and twists it actually keeps the audience interested to the end. Though you can very well say, it is not a masterpiece, not a memorable one and not even as thrilling as another Oscar winner ”Dark Night”. There is no thrill as such in “The curious case of Benjamin Button” and yet indeed it will arouse your curiosity.


You may probably watch the movie to the end because of the "sweet" attitude, dramatic expressions and a very healthy body with a shining face of a "ballerina" played by an actress called Cate Blanchet. She has a glow on her face and suits the role of ballerina who can bend and forward like bird in the sky an dance with sweeping steps, gyrates like a rubber doll.


She was becoming popular and successful ballerina in theaters in New York by the time our hero's old age period since birth was gone and developed in to a 30 year old young man with a powerful body. The ballerina now becoming popular aged normally, since childhood, she became a girl and now a young lady with a promising career, because of her dance practice she had a very healthy body and a shining face because of her discipline.


Now both are (Hero Benjamin and Heroine ballerina dancer Daisy) at cross roads of their respective ages, cross roads of their respective careers; one ageing backwards becoming younger by day and another ageing forwards normally becoming older by day.


When they met in New York theatre she notices the change in him, whom she thought of as an old man. She consoles herself by saying "You and I are almost of same age" she says "I am now 26 and you are 30, we are almost of same age”. She wanted sex with him but he declines. His love for her was just too much. He wants to marry her. But she refuses. Even with a broken leg, in the hospital she tells him" though we are childhood friends, we are no more children”.


But somehow she later decides to marry him and comes to meet him in his city and marries him, gives birth to a baby girl. But the Hero gets nervous, he is growing younger everyday and along with this his maturity, his ability to take responsibility also comes down.


He sells his fathers house buys a new flat and sells his boat etc., to put money in the bank for his new born child and then runs away from home. Why? God knows why? Because director could not justify this incident or behaviour of the hero of the story, that is Benjamin.


In any case what we understand is that there is something unchanged, unborn in all of us. When someone tells us that we are now 50 years of age, yes, we realize we are 50 years of age. It is because, in everyone, there is something which does not grow old at all. We are the same… that is something inside us is same throughout our life. This Benjamin Button is not for an ordinary cinema audience who may want some thrill, or some song and dance.


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