FeedThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button
January 1 2009, 7:45pm
Those reviewers who say that it's a tour de force of makeup and visual effects are more or less right, although it feels less groundbreaking to me than, say, LOTR, or even Saving Private Ryan. But maybe that's because those were both better movies.
Tilda Swinton is, of course, awesome, but hers is just about the only acting in the movie. Brad Pitt seems unable or unwilling to share with us what it might be like to be a young man in an old man's body, or vice versa. His solution to both is the blank stare. Cate Blanchett is OK, but she's been far better in nearly everything else I've seen her in.
The script is by the guy who wrote "Forrest Gump" (and the Horse Whisperer and at least part of Munich), and it goes broad whenever it can, and rarely manages to go deep. Can't blame Fitzgerald, who gave the conceit the 20 pages it deserved; it takes Roth 168. Meh.
Tilda Swinton is, of course, awesome, but hers is just about the only acting in the movie. Brad Pitt seems unable or unwilling to share with us what it might be like to be a young man in an old man's body, or vice versa. His solution to both is the blank stare. Cate Blanchett is OK, but she's been far better in nearly everything else I've seen her in.
The script is by the guy who wrote "Forrest Gump" (and the Horse Whisperer and at least part of Munich), and it goes broad whenever it can, and rarely manages to go deep. Can't blame Fitzgerald, who gave the conceit the 20 pages it deserved; it takes Roth 168. Meh.
