Happiness For Blessing

Technically speaking, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is quite an accomplishment. It is first and foremost a film about visual effects. The job that the special effects people did with Brad Pitt is nothing short of amazing. I am usually very critical of CGI; many a movie experience has been ruined for me because I can't get over, for example, how corny the Hulk looks when he's jumping across the desert. In this case, I was blown away. The line between actor and animation is even more blurred than it was before this film. I have to believe that the groundbreaking nature of Button is what got it nominated for so many awards, because I don't think the rest of it was that great.

The story was compelling enough - except that it wasn't about anything. Screenwriter Eric Roth adapted F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story, which is to say that he took the idea of a man aging backwards and his name and went in the complete opposite direction. The story is a comedy, while the movie tries desperately to be a serious drama. Roth could have examined Benjamin's condition in so many compelling ways, but instead settles for an awkward love story and a silly gimmick with a hummingbird. Much has been made of the similarity between Button and Roth's other major screenwriting accomplishment, Forrest Gump. I have included the following humorous video to highlight that fact:

I really wanted to like this film, but it started to drag about an hour of the way through. It was simply too long. However, I am giving it a positive rating because of the quality of the special effects work. 3/5 stars.