tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737235139994190228.post2487130155284651139..comments2024-01-10T00:07:48.304+00:00Comments on Cathode Ray Tube: THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTONFrank Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00680654042528560764noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737235139994190228.post-1638106564878844062009-02-19T23:01:00.000+00:002009-02-19T23:01:00.000+00:00I wonder what Brad Pitt would think about us analy...I wonder what Brad Pitt would think about us analyzing his movie so in depth =P<BR/><BR/>and your points are valid, I agree it was somewhat inconsistent, I did cry when Queenie died though lol.<BR/>Soo I guess I didn't find it as hollow.<BR/>The guy I was with was laughing at me while I mourned her death!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737235139994190228.post-18090953727848914902009-02-19T11:50:00.000+00:002009-02-19T11:50:00.000+00:00Sydney, I almost agree with much of what you say. ...Sydney, I almost agree with much of what you say. <BR/><BR/>Yes, it is a bildungsroman coming of age tale. And for the most part it is charming, quirky, engrossing and moving. I don’t have any issues with what the film is supposed to be about. Yes, it is about how fleeting human life is and the tragedy of a relationship that cannot be. That’s pretty much covered in the first and last hours. <BR/><BR/>I think where it goes wrong, and you’ll disagree with me here, is precisely because it attempts a full blown love story right in the middle of the film when in fact it isn’t a love story. I disagree that Daisy is portrayed as ‘just one woman’. She is set up at the heart of the film as ‘the’ woman in his life. And because she’s actually a rather unsympathetic character the film starts to unravel when the love story element takes over. Yes, it is a tragic story and Benjamin’s fate is very moving but I really couldn’t have cared less about his and Daisy’s on-off relationship. And that’s simply down to the total lack of chemistry between Pitt and Blanchett. Pitt is very good as Benjamin, but as he is restored to youth the film has to deal with the issue of Pitt as the celebrity/Heat/OK/Hello icon. He becomes a distraction and I couldn’t get past that no matter how hard Pitt tries to emote. Along with the love story element, it’s his transformation into the monolithic idea of Pitt the celebrity that misplaces any sense of tragedy the film tries to instil in us. <BR/><BR/>Blanchett is OK. Unfortunately, I also found her aged Daisy a bit hammy when in fact she’s the glue that’s supposed to be holding the film together. Of course, it’s all about how she couldn’t reach the full potential of her life but again, she’s such an unsympathetic character that I really didn’t care that much. <BR/><BR/>Oh, and yes, the pacing is deliberate. I agree. But the pace of the film is one of its problems. The bookending hours are very oddly, inconsistently paced. The first hour is a slow unfolding of Button’s youth, full of detail, whimsy, pathos and humour. The final hour basically goes hell for leather to cover his death and his daughter Caroline and there are a series of, for this film, quite rapid dissolves showing the decline of the younger Button. What should be a lingering death is covered incredibly quickly in the last half hour. It’s still tragic but like the disregard for Queenie’s death it has a hollowness to it. But then you could argue that as the film decides to speed up it reflects the way we observe the pace of life changing as we get older. I actually preferred all the other interconnecting storylines – Elizabeth (Swinton is one of the best things in this), Queenie, Captain Mike and Thomas actually felt more alive than anything that Brad and Cate were attempting in the central ‘doomed lovers’ roles in the Hollywood schmaltz section of the film. And it is chocolate box and roses schmaltz, it really is. Which is I suppose fitting for a film that rests on such a whimsical conceit. <BR/><BR/>And finally, yes I agree, a story that is told via a diary and through the lens of a freak of nature is bound to be very eccentric in the way it offers up images. It’s just that I found myself being distracted not only by the revealing of the uber Brad icon but also by the battery of effects to depict the postcard landscapes and in the end, for me, it robbed the film of the very realism you believe it has. <BR/><BR/>As I said, it’s a good film. It’s engrossing, charming, funny and tragic. But its romantic core is resplendent with a bloated Hollywood excess that distanced me from finding total sympathy with both of the leading characters. I can’t empathise with Daisy and Benjamin because there is no spark between Pitt and Blanchett and that’s the real tragedy of the film.Frank Collinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00680654042528560764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737235139994190228.post-25549713543600115722009-02-19T04:01:00.000+00:002009-02-19T04:01:00.000+00:00You know, I almost entirely disagree with your mai...You know, I almost entirely disagree with your main thesis here.<BR/>I agree, the love story isn't particularly compelling, but I firmly maintain that the film isn't about their love story.<BR/><BR/>Primarily the title itself, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is indicative of a bildungsroman, a coming of age tale. Perhaps were it called "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and his love for a 'snobbish, vain, woman' who likes to have sex with Dancers" one might have reason to complain about the lack lustre love story. It is established early on in the film that (contrary to what one might wish to see) each character is rather independent of the other, and in fact each pursue other equally as meaningful relationships. This defies a traditional love story in which both characters are seemingly halted in their pursuits. Daisy is very much depicted as "just one woman" (though clearly a very important one) but none the less, only one person in the colourful life of Benjamin. Moreover, Daisy serves as an image of the life Benjamin could have had the circumstance of his birth not been so tragic. It is not so much the loss of Daisy that is the focus of the film, but the loss of a life he could have had an enjoyed. The "misplaced sense of tragedy" of which you refer is not misplaced, in that the tragedy is not that their love couldn't flourish, but is the tragedy of a life that couldn't reach its potential.<BR/><BR/>What you point out as some of the films short fallings specifically its "lethargic pace", somewhat anticlimactic love sequence, and its "over-manufactured image" are in fact its triumphs, and to call them all deficiencies seems somewhat paradoxical. The lethargic nature and of the film was surely deliberate, for it contrasts the imagery of the Hummingbird in the story, which represents Benjamin's fleeting life, and furthermore enhances the realism of his life. Were the film set at a more rapid pace it be filled with more "Hollywood shmaltz", in that real lives aren't always filled with excitement or the intense emotion you so desire. Were the life of Benjamin filled with epic love, tremendous loss, car chases, and the Russian Mafia (though perhaps the movie would be less lethargic and boring) it would be less relatable. I think if you ask yourself "Were my life to be put on film, what would it look like?" it would likely pan out similar to Benjamins. What makes the film relatable is that life doesn't throw things at you quickly, one thing after the other. The story of life is gradual, things circle about and story lines are set far in the past and are revived in the distant future. Such complex story lines cannot be established in one and a half hours. In fact, I would argue that these story lines are somewhat weak as the film undertakes too much for the relatively short length in comparison to that which it depicts.<BR/><BR/>I think the somewhat anticlimactic love story is also essential to the films realism. In reality, love comes and goes. You fall in love again and again with a variety of people and I appreciate how this is captured in the film. Though both love each other and do in fact grow old together, they each have other loves and other lives, and that is reality whereas a Hollywood shmooze-fest would ignore this reality. <BR/><BR/>As for the "over-manufactured image" I liked the whimsical aspect to the film. Keep in mind the story isn't being told from Benjamins perspective and it isn't being told in the present. We are relying on his diary and Daisy's memories and imaginings of his lifes tale. I think this calls for a perhaps somewhat whimsical, imaginative setting as it reflects the imaginative and personal nature of the journal (which in itself appears to be eclectic in nature).<BR/><BR/>Sorry to.. well to disagree so thoroughly =P<BR/>But I really thought it was a very meaningful, realistic piece and very much kept true to F. Scott Fitzgerald's story.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com