Benjamin Button

Handsomely shot, technically accomplished, with some very fine moments and a talented and engaging supporting cast, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a beautiful snore.

Scratch that – snore is too strong a word, too disparaging; Button is in many ways an extremely well made film, and is always watchable. But at nearly three hours, the story feels a tad slow and its emotional heart seems curiously cold.

The film is beautifully shot – there are very few contemporary filmmakers with a more finely honed visual sense than director David Fincher, and Benjamin Button is perhaps his best looking picture. The cinematography by Claudio Miranda lends the film a somber, slightly antiquated quality that suits both the film’s period and its overarching theme of life’s transience.

The makeup and effects wizardry behind the central character’s aging process are also commendable, and they lend credibility to a story that is ultimately pure fantasy: the arc of a man’s life as he ages in reverse. Born looking like a ninety-year old infant, Button grows taller and younger as time marches on. He falls in love with Daisy (a solid Cate Blanchett), goes to sea during WWII, wanders the nations of the world, has affairs and adventures, and meets a series of colorful characters, only to finally return to Daisy. The supporting cast is very strong. Particularly memorable are Taraji P. Henson and Mahershalalhashbaz Ali as Benjamin’s adoptive parents. Tilda Swinton (who plays one of Benjamin's first romantic interests), Jason Flemyng (as Button’s biological father) and Jared Harris (playing Benjamin’s tattooed tugboat boss Captain Mike) also make strong impressions.

But there lies the film’s chief problem: while the supporting cast of characters is truly colorful and interesting, Benjamin Button himself isn’t. In fact, he’s a rather dull fellow, and is lacking much in the way of personality. Button may meet interesting people, sure, but the film is ultimately derailed because it’s tied to the telling of its hero’s story – and its hero is a cipher. How much of this is Brad Pitt’s fault and how much is the fault of screenwriter Eric Roth is hard to know, but neither man seems to have made the right choices. Pitt doesn’t provide his character with anything much beyond good looks and a charming smile while Roth, who is essentially riffing on (or ripping off) his own screenplay for Forrest Gump here, hasn’t really helped matters by giving his central character so little verve. Any film that asks its viewers to invest three hours in the story (the love story, no less) of a lifeless main character is bound to seem a little too long.

That’s a shame when there are so many other things about the film that one can recommend.