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For the short story, see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story).
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 American fantasy drama film directed by David Fincher. The screenplay by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord is loosely based on the 1922 short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film stars Brad Pitt as a man who ages in reverse and Cate Blanchett as the love interest throughout his life. The film was released in the United States on December 25, 2008. The film received thirteen Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Pitt, and Best Supporting Actress for Taraji P. Henson. It won Oscars for Art Direction, Makeup, and Visual Effects.
[edit] PlotIn August 2005, an 81-year-old Daisy (Cate Blanchett) is on her deathbed with her 37-year-old daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond) in a New Orleans hospital as Hurricane Katrina approaches. Daisy tells Caroline the story of a blind clockmaker named Gateau (Elias Koteas), who was commissioned to create a clock to hang in the New Orleans train station. After receiving news of his son's death in World War I, he continued work on his clock, but intentionally designed it to run backward, in the hope that it would bring back those who died in the war. After her story, Daisy asks Caroline to read aloud from a diary containing photographs and postcards written by Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt). Caroline begins to read as the story transitions to Benjamin's narration. On November 11, 1918, just as the people of New Orleans are celebrating the end of the WWI, a baby boy is born with the appearance and physical maladies of an 85-year-old man. The mother of the baby dies shortly after giving birth, and the father, Thomas Button (Jason Flemyng), takes the baby and abandons him on the porch of a nursing home. Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) and Mr. "Tizzy" Weathers (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), a couple who work at the nursing home, find the baby. Queenie, who is unable to conceive, decides to take the baby in as her own and be his mother, against Tizzy's wishes. She names the baby Benjamin. Over the course of the story, Benjamin begins to biologically grow younger. At age seven, Queenie takes Benjamin to a Christian faith healing service where Benjamin rises from his wheelchair and walks for the first time. In the 1920s, he makes friends with Ngunda Oti, a Pygmy who used to sit by a river, and Mrs. Maple, a woman in her seventies who loves music. He also finds out that Mr. Weathers' grandfather worked for John Wilkes Booth and would bring him plays in order to help him read better. In 1930, while still appearing to be 73, Benjamin meets a 6-year-old girl named Daisy (Elle Fanning), whose grandmother lives in the nursing home. The children play together and listen to Daisy's grandmother read from a storybook. In 1934, just as Mrs. Maple dies, Benjamin goes to work on a tugboat on the docks of New Orleans for a tattoo artist, Captain Mike (Jared Harris). In their free time, the captain takes him to a bar for a drink and to have sex with prostitutes. For the first time, Benjamin meets Thomas Button, who does not reveal that he is Benjamin's father. In 1936, after making friends with a man who had been struck by lightning 7 times, Mr. Daws, Benjamin leaves New Orleans with the tugboat crew for a long-term work engagement. Upon Daisy's request, he sends her postcards from his travels. While in the Russian port city of Murmansk, he writes to Daisy that he has fallen in love. He begins an affair with the older, married Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton), who used to swim as a 19-year-old. On December 8, 1941 she breaks it off, leaving him a note only telling him "It was nice to have met you." While in Russia, Benjamin and the rest of the tugboat crew hear of the Pearl Harbor attack. Captain Mike tells his crew that the Chelsea, his tugboat, has been commissioned into the United States Navy. They work through the war hauling damaged ships until one day they come upon a ship carrying 1,300 men that has been split by a torpedo. They attack the U-boat that had sunk the ship with their single mounted machine gun, exchanging fire until Captain Mike is fatally wounded at the helm and lets go of the controls. The ship goes to full speed and rams the U-boat, sinking both the U-boat and the Chelsea. Captain Mike and every member of the crew except Benjamin and another man perish. In 1945, Benjamin returns to New Orleans, and learns that the 21-year-old Daisy has become a successful ballet dancer in New York City, and that Tizzy just passed away. In 1947, Benjamin meets Thomas Button again, who is dying. He reveals he is his father and gives him his house, his button factory and other possessions, before he dies. In 1951, Benjamin comes to New York to meet Daisy at a performance, and finds Daisy has fallen in love with a fellow dancer, and tries to accept that their lives have separated. Daisy's dance career is ended in 1957 by an accident in Paris, explained as a series of seemingly unrelated events. She is hit by a taxi cab that breaks her leg in five places. When Benjamin goes to see her, Daisy is amazed at his youthful appearance, but frustrated at her own injuries; she turns him away by telling Benjamin to stay out of her life. In 1962, Daisy returns to New Orleans and reunites with Benjamin. Now the same physical age, they fall in love and move into an apartment together. They experience the 1960s together, in large part blissfully but increasingly aware of Benjamin growing younger while Daisy grows older. In 1967, Benjamin is informed that Queenie died and Daisy is pregnant. In 1968, Daisy gives birth to a girl, Caroline. In 1969, Benjamin, believing he cannot be a father figure to his daughter due to his reverse aging, and not wanting to burden Daisy with having to raise two children, sells his belongings, and leaves the proceeds to Daisy and Caroline. He leaves them both and travels to India. After reading this account, Caroline learns that Benjamin is her father. She is upset about the way Daisy chose to inform her, but finds that Benjamin sent her a postcard from everywhere for each of her birthdays expressing his love for his daughter. In 1980, Benjamin, now appearing about 23, returns to meet Daisy in her dance studio. The 56-year-old Daisy is now married to Robert Williams, a kind, supportive man, to Benjamin's relief. Daisy introduces Benjamin to Robert and the 12-year-old Caroline as a long-time family friend. Daisy and Benjamin then meet privately in Benjamin's hotel where they share their passion for each other, but they realize that their lives must remain separate. Benjamin departs again and continues to grow younger. In 1991, Daisy receives a phone call from social workers. They inform her that they found Benjamin — now a young 12-year-old — living in a condemned building, and that they called her because her name and address was written in his diary. The social workers believe that he has dementia as he sometimes forgets that he had just eaten and cannot remember Daisy or much of his past. Daisy moves into the nursing home where Benjamin grew up and takes care of him through the 1990s as he becomes a confused 5-year-old boy with a growing temper, then a toddler learning to walk. In 2002, Mr. Gateau's old clock is removed from the train station. Shortly afterward, in the spring of 2003, the 84-year-old Benjamin, who is now physically an infant, closes his eyes as to sleep and dies in Daisy's arms. At the moment before Benjamin dies, Daisy claims to have seen in his eyes that he recognized who she is. Finally, the 2005 hurricane cuts the electrical system. As Caroline briefly leaves the room, Daisy passes away, her wish of seeing Benjamin again seemingly answered by a hummingbird hovering outside the storm-drenched windows, just as the sounds of the city's emergency sirens and reports of breached levees are heard. Many of the people Benjamin met in his travels through a backwards life are shown once more, with Benjamin narrating what each of them had been born to do. The backwards clock is then shown in a basement, still working, as floodwaters envelop the storage room in which it is kept. [edit] Cast
[edit] Production[edit] DevelopmentProducer Ray Stark bought the film rights to do The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in the mid-1980's, the first choice to direct it was Frank Oz, with Martin Short attached for the title role, but Oz couldn't work out how to make the story work. The film was optioned in 1991 by Steven Spielberg, with Tom Cruise attached for the lead role. But, Spielberg left the project to direct Jurassic Park and Schindler's List. Other director's attached were Patrick Read Johnson and Agnieszka Holland. Stark eventually sold the rights to producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, who took the film to Paramount Pictures. By summer 1994, Maryland Film Office chief Jack Gerbes was approached with the possibility of a film adaptation of the 1922 short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which takes place in Baltimore.[3] In October 1998, screenwriter Robin Swicord wrote for director Ron Howard an adapted screenplay of the short story, a project which would potentially star actor John Travolta.[4] In May 2000, Paramount Pictures hired screenwriter Jim Taylor to adapt a screenplay from the short story. The studio also attached director Spike Jonze to helm the project.[5] Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman had also written a draft of the adapted screenplay at one point.[6] In June 2003, director Gary Ross entered final negotiations to helm the project based on a new draft penned by screenwriter Eric Roth.[7] In May 2004, Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount Pictures joined to co-finance the project, with Paramount Pictures marketing the film in foreign territories and Warner Bros. handling domestic distribution (those were eventually switched).[citation needed] In the same month, director David Fincher entered negotiations to replace Ross in directing the film.[8] In July 2005, Fincher negotiated a deal with the studios to direct Benjamin Button and Zodiac back-to-back, with Zodiac being produced first. [edit] AdaptationThe completed screenplay differs from Fitzgerald's short story in numerous ways. The short story is set in Baltimore, not New Orleans. In the short story, the baby is born speaking like an adult and with a long white beard. He is born in a hospital, not at home, and is 70 years old, not 85. In addition, he is not deserted by his father at a home for the elderly, but is cared for by Mr. Button and encouraged to go to college. He also mentally ages backward, not forward. The opening sequence of the film, depicting time flowing backward, and the war dead coming back to life and returning home, is very similar to a passage in Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. In that passage, Billy Pilgrim is unstuck in time while watching a war movie on television. Time starts to flow backward for him, and as he watches the film, events unfold as shattered planes are restored, dead and wounded men have the bullets sucked from their bodies, the planes are returned to their fields, then disassembled, turned back into the minerals that they were created from, and dispersed where they will be difficult to find. The men return back home to families and loved ones, and all humankind biologically conspires to create the perfect human couple, Adam and Eve. [edit] CastingIn May 2005, actors Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett entered negotiations to star in the film as Benjamin Button and Daisy, respectively.[9] In September 2006, actors Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, and Taraji P. Henson entered negotiations to be cast into the film.[10] The following October, with production yet to begin, actress Julia Ormond was cast as Daisy's daughter, to whom Blanchett's character tells the story of her love affair with Benjamin Button.[11] [edit] Filming  For Benjamin Button, New Orleans, Louisiana and the surrounding area was chosen as the filming location for the story to take advantage of the state's production incentives, and shooting was slated to begin in October 2006.[12] Filming of Benjamin Button began on November 6, 2006 in New Orleans. In January 2007, Blanchett joined the shoot.[13] Fincher praised the ease of accessibility to rural and urban sets in New Orleans and said that the recovery from Hurricane Katrina did not serve as an atypical hindrance to production.[14] In March 2007, production moved to Los Angeles for two more months of filming.[3] Principal photography was targeted to last a total of 150 days. Additional time was needed in post-production to create the visual effects for the metamorphosis of Brad Pitt's character to the infant stage.[15] The director used a camera system called Contour, developed by Steve Perlman, to capture facial deformation data from live-action performances.[16] Overall production was finished in September 2007.[17] The movie props were donated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Some of the scenes were shot in Montreal as well. [edit] MusicThe score to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was written by French composer Alexandre Desplat, who recorded his score with an 87-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Scoring Stage.[18] The film's first trailer featured the "Aquarium" movement of Camille Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals. The choir singing in the trailer is Libera, a group of boys from South London. The international trailer contains the song "A Moment of Greatness" by Immediate Music. One of the TV spots contains the song "My Body is a Cage" by Arcade Fire. Some TV spots use the song "The Return", which is part of APM Music's Liquid Cinema Collection "Cinematic Emotions & Drama". There are also songs in the film shared with O Brother, Where Art Thou?, including "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby" and "I'll Fly Away", from a different recording. The piano piece that Benjamin learns and which is reprised at the end of the film is Bethena: A Concert Waltz by Scott Joplin. Benjamin and Daisy watch The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show singing "Twist and Shout". [edit] ReceptionThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button was originally slated for theatrical release in May 2008,[19] but it was pushed back to November 26, 2008.[20] The release date was moved again to December 25 in the United States, January 16, 2009 in Mexico, February 5 in the United Kingdom, February 13 in Italy[21][22] and February 27 in South Africa. [edit] Box office performanceOn its opening day, the film opened in the number two position behind Marley & Me, in North America with $11,871,831 in 2,988 theaters with a $3,973 average.[23] However, during its opening weekend, the film dropped to the third position behind Marley & Me and Bedtime Stories with $26,853,816 in 2,988 theaters with an $8,987 average.[24] As of March 21, 2009 the film has grossed $125,386,000 at the domestic box office, foreign box office stands at $177,000,000 with a total gross of $329,809,326.[2] [edit] Critical receptionThe film has received mostly positive reviews. As of August 6, 2009, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 71% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 214 reviews, with 77% of selected "Top Critics" giving the film positive reviews.[25] According to Metacritic, the film received an average score of 70 based on 36 reviews.[26] Yahoo! Movies reported the film received a B+ average score from critical consensus.[27] Todd McCarthy of Variety gave the film a positive review, calling it a "richly satisfying serving of deep-dish Hollywood storytelling."[28] Peter Howell of The Toronto Star says: "It's been said that the unexamined life is not worth living. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button suggests an addendum: a life lived backwards can be far more enriching..." and describes the film as "a magical and moving account of a man living his life resoundingly in reverse" and "moviemaking at its best."[29] Rod Yates of Empire awarded it five out of a possible five stars.[30] Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter felt the film was "superbly made and winningly acted by Brad Pitt in his most impressive outing to date." Honeycutt praised Fincher's directing of the film and noted that the "cinematography wonderfully marries a palette of subdued earthern colors with the necessary CGI and other visual effects that place one in a magical past." Honeycutt states the bottom line about Benjamin Button is that it is "an intimate epic about love and loss that is pure cinema."[31] A.O. Scott of The New York Times states, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, more than two and a half hours long, sighs with longing and simmers with intrigue while investigating the philosophical conundrums and emotional paradoxes of its protagonist’s condition in a spirit that owes more to Jorge Luis Borges than to Fitzgerald." Scott praised director David Fincher and writes "Building on the advances of pioneers like Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Robert Zemeckis...Mr. Fincher has added a dimension of delicacy and grace to digital filmmaking" and further states, "While it stands on the shoulders of breakthroughs like Minority Report, The Lord of the Rings and Forrest Gump, Benjamin Button may be the most dazzling such hybrid yet, precisely because it is the subtlest." He also stated: "At the same time, like any other love--like any movie--it is shadowed by disappointment and fated to end."[32] On the other hand, Anne Hornaday of The Washington Post states, "There's no denying the sheer ambition and technical prowess of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. What's less clear is whether it entirely earns its own inflated sense of self-importance..." and further says, "It plays too safe when it should be letting its freak flag fly."[33] Kimberley Jones of the Austin Chronicle panned the film and states, "Fincher's selling us beautifully cheekboned movie stars frolicking in bedsheets and calling it a great love. I didn't buy it for a second."[34] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two and a half stars, saying that it is "a splendidly made film based on a profoundly mistaken premise." He goes on to elaborate that "The movie's premise devalues any relationship, makes futile any friendship or romance, and spits, not into the face of destiny, but backward into the maw of time."[35] Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian called it "166 minutes of twee tedium", giving it one star out of a possible five.[36] Ashley Scrace from the Sheffield Star noted: "It is a good film, but one of contradictions, some of which are far beyond the story of young versus old. It is surprising yet clichéd; sad yet hollow; visually impressive yet ordinary." He goes on to add, "I just hope this year’s Oscars do not follow a tired formula: biggest budget, plus biggest stars, equals biggest awards." The film was rated at three stars out of a possible five.[37] Cosmo Landesman of the Sunday Times wrote: "The film’s premise serves no purpose. It’s a gimmick that goes on for nearly three hours," concluding "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an anodyne Hollywood film that offers a safe and sanitised view of life and death. It's Forrest Gump goes backwards," while awarding the film two out of five stars.[38] James Christopher in The Times called it "a tedious marathon of smoke and mirrors. In terms of the basic requirements of three-reel drama the film lacks substance, credibility, a decent script and characters you might actually care for"[39] while Derek Malcolm of London's Evening Standard notes that "never at any point do you feel that there’s anything more to it than a very strange story traversed by a film-maker who knows what he is doing but not always why he is doing it."[40] The screenplay also came under criticism for its perceived unoriginality. Many have noted extensive similarities between The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Forrest Gump, both written by Eric Roth, prompting accusations of "self-plagiarism."[41][42][43][44] [edit] Top ten listsThe film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.[45] According to Movie City News, the film has appeared on 79 different top ten lists out of 286 different critics lists surveyed, the 6th most mentioned on a top ten list of the films released in 2008.[46] According to CriticsTop10, the film appeared on over 136 film critics top ten lists, with 12 number one mentions, and was also ranked 6th of the year in terms of appearances on critics' top ten lists.[47]
[edit] Plagiarism ClaimIn January 2009, an Italian writer named Adriana Pichini filed legal papers contending that the film appeared to have been based on a story that she wrote in 1994, entitled "Il ritorno di Arthur all'innocenza" (Arthur's Return to Innocence). The case will be examined by an Italian judge to see whether or not the situation merits further inquiry.[48] [edit] Home mediaThe film was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on May 5, 2009 by Paramount. The Criterion release includes over three hours of special features, and a documentary about the making of the film.[49] Benjamin Button has something of an unusual distribution arrangement for the Blu-ray release world wide. The US Criterion release does not appear to be available in other countries and it is unknown whether Warner struck a different transfer for other markets or used the same master outside of US. For releases in countries such as UK and Australia, the Blu-ray is distributed by Warner Brothers with no reference to Criterion on the packaging. The Criterion edition has received outstanding reviews for audio and video presentation. The main audio track is consistent across all editions (DTS HD Master Audio) and the special features appear to be consistent across both editions also. The Australian edition of the Blu-ray includes a license to download a digital copy of the movie to portable devices. This license key is valid for 1 year from release date of the Blu-ray. There is no media in the set containing the portable digital edition of the movie. As of November 1, 2009 the DVD has sold 2,515,722 DVD copies and has generated $41,196,515 in sales revenue.[50] [edit] Awards and honors
[edit] Notes
HighDefDiscNews Blu-ray Review [edit] External links
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