i love (the director) david fincher - 'fight club' was a good crack whilst 'se7en' and 'zodiac' are some of my ABSOLUTE recent favourites - but benjamin was actually a bit shit.
in a nutshell - it's a smug 'forrest gump' but not as enjoyably ludicrous.
it suffers from:
- Brad pitt grows younger > big frickin' deal! it doesn't really affect the story in any meaniful way.
- the characters have no depth > fair enough! but if your gunna have shallow characters you might as well have your lead character fighting in the vietnam war, playing ping pong in china, becoming a shrimp boat captain and then run across america a few times.
- cate blanchett's character > snoooooooooorrrrrre! the love story is so empty
however:
- there are some cool scenes when benjamin is out at sea which are almost worth the admission price.
- it has a good joke in it but then they milk it for all its worth.
- it does all look quite nice and Tilda Swinton's character is a nice little aside.
there's a whole flasback device going on aswell which seems clunky, as is the likening benjamin to a humming bird.
- before seeing this film i was looking forward to reading the short story on which it is based by f.scott fitzgerald. after seeing it i opted to read a french book about extreme sexual fetishes instead and i think i made the right choice.
2 1/2 out of 5
Glad I inspired you, Phil! I hope you're wrong about benjamin button, I've been looking forward to that for aaages =( I don't much like forrest gump and I was a bit worried this'd turn out similar. Ah well will see for myself soon.
ReplyDeleteV good read though - it made me laugh x