The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

As I said in the previous post, I would be reviewing this film very shortly, and I was not lying.

First off, I am a fan of David Fincher’s work. This film has his unique touch, such as the flashbacks being made to look like different era films. For example, the old guy that says he was struck by lightning seven times, every time they flashback, the clip is in the silent film era.

I thought that Brad Pitt was pretty awesome, going from an old man, to a young boy. And this movie will probably win best make-up.

There were plenty of unbelievable moments throughout the movie, but you really should just ignore them. The movie is about love and loss.

Unfortunately, I cannot ignore those kind of things. I liked the film, but there were things that bothered me. Daisy was in her 40s when she had her kid, which can happen, but was very dangerous for women back in the 60s. Also, if you noticed, the timing of Benjamin Button seems to be weird. There seemed to be no pace of how quickly his age was happening. If he was born like he was 80, did that mean every year he went one year backward? I know these things are trivial, but it seemed like it took forever for him to stop looking really old, but then he went quickly from a 40 year old man back to a 20 year old…

Anyways, it was a good movie, well directed. Probably will win some awards, but it was nothing that blew my mind.

Author: Ngewo

10 thoughts on “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

  1. I’m right there with you, buddy. I enjoyed the first half of the film a lot, but didn’t feel like it had much of an ending.

    SPOILERS FOR THE 2ND HALF
    (though very predictable ones)

    Cate’s older
    Brad’s younger
    Cate’s even older
    Brad’s crazy young
    Cate’s super old
    Brad’s a baby
    Dead.

    The last time they’re able to really connect with each is when he leaves her. For me, the movie petered out after that.

  2. Even if they would have expanded on his experiences as a young man living every where, it would have been better than just glossing over a major portion of his life…

  3. Josh, I pretty much agree with the things you said except for you saying it didn’t blow your mind. It didn’t blow mine either, I guess, but I thought it was pretty amazing… oh, and the best makeup comment was made by me first… you rat bastard!

    Anyway, I got on IMDb (surprise surprise) and looked up the movie goofs. Here are some of the better ones:

    **Plot holes: How could Benjamin, who was in New Orleans, possibly know the sequence of events prior to Daisy being hit by the taxi in Paris?

    **Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Caroline says to Daisy at the hospital “I didn’t know you danced” yet Daisy ran a dance studio throughout Caroline’s childhood.

    **Factual errors: The characters of Benjamin and Daisy both have blue eyes (recessive trait). Yet they have a daughter with brown eyes (dominant trait). Biology tells you that two people with a recessive trait cannot have a child with a dominant trait.

    **Factual errors: It is extremely unlikely that a tug boat, being vastly outweighed by a U-boat, could possibly smash into the U-boat and sink it.

    **Anachronisms: Benjamin is seen wearing glasses with anti-reflective lenses in the scene where Daisy is dancing in the moonlight. Anti-reflective lenses had yet to be invented at that time.

    **Plot holes: At the end of the film, when the year was suppose to be 2004 (when Katrina hits), they show the clock being replaced in the train station. If you look on the bottom left side of the new clock, you will see a poster that says, “Citizen. Soldier”, an advertisement for the hit single from the band 3 Doors Down, (the band is also shown on the left side of the poster) which was not released until 2007.

  4. Haha, yes I stole your idea. Deal with it son.

    As far as certain “goofs” are concerned:

    The plot hole of Ben knowing the events prior to Daisy getting hit is not so much meant to be set in stone, but should be thought of his way of saying “if any one of these things would have changed, she would have been okay.” It does not matter how he knew them, but the lesson we learn from them.

    Not 100% sure if I am going to take IMDB’s word on nautical battles of a U-Boat vs. a Tugboat…

    Wait, 3 Doors Down is still releasing music? I think that is the actual plot hole here.

  5. Yeah, I think the Daisy-taxi thing is allowed due to narrator omniscience.

    The dancing goof is pretty embarrassing, quite frankly, and I don’t see what purpose putting it in there intentionally would provide.

    And I thought it was pretty silly and pointless setting the movie during Katrina at all. Angelina probably had something to do with it…

    And on the best makeup front, the majority of the aging techniques were done with CGI (for Brad at least).

  6. After I got out of the movie, I was trying to figure out what significance Katrina had in the movie. I couldn’t figure it out, and thought it was because I’m super dumb. If you guys don’t see any reason for it either, maybe I’m *not* so dumb! Whew.

    My stepbrother saw this the other day and sent me a text afterward with a good point. If Benjamin was the size of a baby when he died, shouldn’t he have been born the size of an old man?

  7. Haha, yes I said the same thing to my brother after the movie. I guess that would have been weird though (not that the premise isn’t weird enough), I mean a grown man coming out of a vagina, that would rip something.

  8. i think there are several reasons why they chose to set it during katrina. the setting(new orleans) was a big part of the movie. i live near new orleans and when the movie was being filmed the scars katrina left on the city were still very evident. brad said himself that the movie is a love letter to new orleans. he himself is involved in helping restore the city. katrina is now such a huge part of new orleans history that it seems appropriate. also, death is obviously a big theme in the movie- “you can be mad as a mad dog at the way things went. but in the end, you just have to let go.” i think this movie stands as a tribute to new orleans and the people who died here. sorry my explanation was long. i hope it helps everyone understand some of the reasoning in putting katrina in there.

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