The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Benjamin Button is pleasant enough while it plays, but leaves you wondering what exactly you’ve taken from it. The conceit of a man ageing backwards is ripe for insight, yet the film seems more impressed with its own trick than with what it says about life or love.
David Fincher directs with a steady hand, and the visual sleight that carries Brad Pitt through the decades still holds up. Cate Blanchett brings warmth to the middle stretch, their relationship forming the heart of the film, though the sentiment often tips into syrup.
It’s handsome, wistful, and big in scope, but the aftertaste is oddly thin. Not a disaster, just a film that drifts by — polished on the surface, hollow underneath — and gone from the mind as quickly as the hours we’ll never get back.
David Fincher directs with a steady hand, and the visual sleight that carries Brad Pitt through the decades still holds up. Cate Blanchett brings warmth to the middle stretch, their relationship forming the heart of the film, though the sentiment often tips into syrup.
It’s handsome, wistful, and big in scope, but the aftertaste is oddly thin. Not a disaster, just a film that drifts by — polished on the surface, hollow underneath — and gone from the mind as quickly as the hours we’ll never get back.
Mini Review: Benjamin Button dazzles with its backwards-ageing trick and Fincher’s polish, but it never quite finds a soul beneath the gloss. Pitt and Blanchett sell the romance, though the syrup outweighs the substance. Handsome and wistful, yes, but hollow — a film that drifts by and vanishes as quickly as the hours it eats up.
Watch the Trailer